,m. 


IS,       li^'^iiLXLIBRlS';.5=':.:^       !L.v::ii!l 


I 


■ 


HISTORY  of  the 
ANTI  -  SALOON 
—  LEAGUE  — 


By 
ERNEST  HURST  CHERRINGTON 

Editor  The  American  Issue  and 

The  American  Patriot 

Author  of  The  Anti-Saloon  League  Year  Book 


1913: 

THE  AMERICAN  ISSUE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
WESTERVILLE,  OHIO,  U.S.A. 


COPYRIGHT.    1913 
BY    ERNEST    H     CHERRINOTON 


A  ^3  c  '-t 


CONTENTS 

«^  CHAPTER  I. 

iJi  The  Birth  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League 7 

>- 

<  CHAPTER   II. 

££  The  Struggle  for  Existence 49 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  League  Becomes  a  Political  Power 73 

2  CHAPTER   IV. 


"^    A  Tidal  Wave  of  Temperance  Reform 99 

^  CHAPTER  V. 

Reaction  and  Revival 123 


a? 

S  CHAPTER  VI. 

g    The  Evolution  of  the  Nation-Wide  Crusade 141 

3S. 


.■582o6^^ 


Chapter  L 

The  Birth  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League 


Before  the  monstrous  wrong  he  sets  him  down — 

One  man  against  a  stone-walled  ci«^y  of  sin. 

For  centuries  those  walls  have  been  a-building; 

Smooth  porphyry,  they  slope  and  coldly  glass 

The  flying  storm  and  wheeling  sun.    No  chink, 

No  crevice,  lets  the  thinnest  arrow  in. 

He  fights  alone,  and  from  the  cloudy  ramparts 

A  thousand  evil  faces  gibe  and  jeer  him. 

Let  him  lie  down  and  die:    What  is  the  right, 

And  where  is  justice,  in  a  world  like  this? 

But  by  and  by  earth  shakes  herself,  impatient; 

And  down,  in  one  great  roar  of  ruin,  crash 

Watch-tower  and  citadel  and  battlements. 

\\'hen  the  red  dust  has  cleared,  the  lonely  soldier 

Stands  with  strange  thoughts  beneath  the  friendly  stars. 

— Edward  Rowland  Sill. 


The  Birth  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League 


THE  year,  1893  marked  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  temperance  reform  in 
the  United  States. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  before 
that  time  the  liquor  traffic  had  been  growing 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  For  almost  one  hundred 
years  temperance  societies  and  organizations 
by  the  score  had  spent  themselves  in  a  long 
series  of  unsuccessful  efforts  to  stem  the  tide 
of  intemperance.  Hundreds  of  consecrated 
men  and  women,  devoted  to  the  temperance 
cause,  had  given  their  lives  as  living  sacrifices 
upon  the  altar  of  the  temperance  reform, 
seemingly  without  adequate  results. 

The  annual  tribute  paid  by  the  American 
people  to  the  Moloch  of  rum  had  grown  to  the 
vast  sum  of  almost  $1,500,000,000.  The  hands 
of  the  officers  of  the  law  in  the  cities  and  towns 
of  the  nation  were  tied,  all  too  often,  by  the 
cords  of  graft  woven  in  the  saloon.  State  legis- 
latures were  submissive  to  the  supreme  author- 
ity of  this  monster  liquor  machine,  with  its  un- 
disputed ability  to  make  or  to  unmake  poli- 
ticians.    And  the  federal   government   itself, 

7 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

hushed  by  the  cold  bribe  of  a  one  hundred  and 
ei^lily  niiUion  dollar  annual  federal  tax,  had 
gffown  deaf  and  dumb  on  all  ([uestions  affect- 
ing^ this  institution,  which,  by  a  presumed  di- 
vine right,  held  the  throne  in  the  world  of 
finance  and  trade. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  the  church's 
magnificent  record  of  temperance  sentiment 
building,  apathy  and  indifference  seemed  to 
hold  the  balance  of  power  among  the  Christian 
hosts.  There  were  temperance  organizations, 
some  of  which,  to  all  appearances,  possessed  a 
hatred  of  other  similar  organizations  stronger 
by  far  than  their  hatred  of  the  saloon.  There 
were  even  church  adherents  whose  denomina- 
tionally prejudiced  eyes  looked  upon  the  fol- 
lowers of  other  creeds  as  the  direct  emissaries 
of  Satan.  And  there  were  Christian  men,  be- 
longing to  various  political  parties,  whose  rev,- 
erepce  for  the  mere  name  of  the  political  party 
whose  banner  they  followed  had  come  to  be 
more  sacred  than  their  religious  vows.  These 
great  handicaps  had  constantly  shown  them- 
selves, both  in  the  failure  of  the  Christian 
moral  forces  to  take  advanced  steps  and  in 
their  inability  to  hold  the  ground  which  had 
been  previously  gained. 

iDuring    the     half    century    before     1893, 
V  ft 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

eighteen  states  had  adopted  either  statutory 
or  Constitutional  Prohibition,  with  the  result 
that  eleven  had  repealed  the  law  before  Pro- 
hibition had  been  given  even  a  chance  for  a 
fair  trial,  while  the  prohibitory  laws  in  the  re- 
maining states  had  been  so  poorly  enforced 
that  many  of  these  laws  had  practically  be- 
come dead  letters,  there  being  no  effort  what- 
ever in  certain  states  to  give  any  attention  to 
the  enforcement  of  Prohibition.  In  thirty-one 
states  and  territories  the  people  had  no  voice 
on  the  liquor  question.  Only  eleven  states  had 
any  form  of  local  veto  privilege,  but  in  most  of 
these  the  local  option  provision  was  so  in- 
effective that  it  was  all  but  worthless  outside 
of  three  or  four  commonwealths?) 

In  short,  the  saloon  controlled  politics.  It 
dictated  political  appointments.  It  selected 
the  officers  who  were  to  regulate  and  control 
its  operations.  It  had  its  hand  on  the  throat 
of  legitimate  business.  It  defiantly  vaunted 
itself  in  the  face  of  the  church.  It  ridiculed 
m.orality  and  temperance.    It  reigned  supreme. 

Such  were  the  conditions  that  confronted 
all  who  claimed  the  right  to  be  numbered 
among  the  temperance  forces  in  1893.  Yet,  in 
spite  of  such  conditions,  the  early  pioneers  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  had  the  courage  and 

9 


HISTORY  OF  THE  AXTI- SALOON  LEAGUE 

the  faith  to  present  a  common  platform  for  the 
members  of  all  temperance  organizations; 
holding  out  a  common  creed,  so  far  as  the 
Christian  attitude  toward  the  liquor  traffic 
was  concerned.  ui)c)n  which  all  denominations 
might  agree;  advocating  a  common  policy  on 
which  the  good  men  of  all  parties  might  unite 
— a  propaganda  of  agitation,  legislation  and 
law  enforcement  for  the  solution  of  the  liquor 
problem. 

Thus  it  was  that  after  more  than  a  hundred  V 
years,  during  which  time  thousands  of  earnest 
Christian  temperance  people  had  been  hoping 
for  and  praying  for  a  movement  that  might 
unite  all  Christian  forces  against  the  liquor 
traffic,  there  came  into  existence  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League.  ,  ^ 

The  Ohio  Anti-Saloon  League  was  the  off- 
spring of  the  Oberlin,  Ohio,  Temperance  Al- 
liance, which  was  organized  on  the  evening  of 
March  20,  1874.  The  mass  meeting  of  Oberlin 
citizens  at  which  this  organization  took  place, 
was  called  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  a  crisis 
in  the  temperance  movement  in  that  college 
town.  Rev.  H.  H.  Bowden,  Professor  Hiram 
Mead  and  Rev.  James  Brand  all  gave  stirring 
addresses  at  this  meeting,  urging  the  necessity 

10 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

of   organized   effort   in   order   to    successfully 
combat  the  liquor  evil  in  the  community. 

The  object  of  the  Alliance,  as  given  in  the^ 
constitution  adopted  at  that  time,  was,  "By  all 
lawful  measures  to  suppress  the  traffic  in  and 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors."  The  first  president 
of  the  Alliance  was  President  James  H.  Fair- 
child,  of  Oberlin  College.  The  membership 
was  first  limited  to  those  who  signed  the 
pledge  adopted  by  the  Alliance.  Later,  how- 
ever, the  organization  was  enlarged  to  take  in 
all  persons  in  the  village  who  were  friendly  to 
the  temperance  cause.  The  president,  vice 
presidents  and  eleven  members-at-large  com- 
posed the  Executive  Committee  of  the  organi- 
zation, which,  for  the  first  two  years,  confined 
itself  largely  to  the  work  of  saloon  suppression 
in  Oberlin. 

At  a  meeting  of  this  organization,  held 
February  i,  1876,  it  was  decided  to  extend  the 
activities  of  the  Alliance  to  take  in  something 
more  than  local  work,  and  a  resolution  was 
adopted  authorizing  the  circulation  of  a  peti- 
tion to  the  United  States  Congress,  asking  for 
a  Commission  of  Inquiry  on  the  Liquor  Prob- 
lem. 

Early  in  the  following  year  the  Alliance, 
after  having  corresponded  with  other  college 

II 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

lowns  in  the  stale,  decided  to  make  an  effort  to 
secure  a  local  option  law  for  all  such  towns, 
and  sent  Professor  J.  M.  Ellis  lo  Columbus  to 
take  up  the  matter  with  the  members  of  the 
state  legislature.  Mr.  E.  J.  Goodrich  was  also 
especially  active  in  this  movement  for  addi- 
tional legislation.  A  law  for  college  towns 
known  as  the  "Metcalf  Law"  was  finally  pass- 
ed by  the  legislature  in  1882. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  of  this  first 
effort  to  secure  state  legislation  and  the  bene- 
ficial results  of  the  local  option  provision  of  the 
law,  the  Alliance  soon  decided  to  make  an 
effort  to  extend  this  provision  to  all  communi- 
ties of  the  state.  In  the  meantime,  however, 
the  fight  for  a  prohibitory  amendment  to  the 
State  Constitution  was  made  in  Ohio,  and  the 
Oberlin  Alliance  organized  the  entire  county 
of  Lorain  in  support  of  the  proposed  amend- 
ment. 

According  to  the  minutes  of  the  Oberlin 
Alliance,  a  meeting  was  held  on  December  8, 
1887,  and  a  resolution  was  adopted  calling  for 
a  mass  meeting  on  December  12  in  the  interest 
of  a  state-wide  local  option  law.  This  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  chapel  of  Council  Hall,  and 
was  attended  by  about  one  hundred  earnest 
citizens.     At  this  meeting  it   was  decided  to 

12 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

launch  a  temporary  movement  throughout  the 
state  in  the  interest  of  a  township  local  option 
provision  which  would  apply  uniformly  to  all 
townships  of  the  state.  The  Alliance  employed 
Howard  H,  Russell  to  lead  the  fight,  paid  out 
of  its  treasury  about  half  of  the  $800  raised  and 
expended  during  the  campaign,  and  furnished 
ministers  to  supply  Russell's  pulpit  at  Berea, 
Ohio,  so  that  he  might  give  his  entire  time  to 
the  work  of  securing  petitions  from  all  parts 
of  the  state  and  to  personal  work  with  the 
members  of  the  legislature  at  Columbus.  Rus- 
sell promptly  opened  an  of^ce  with  stenog- 
raphers and  clerks,  arranged  for  helpers  among 
the  ministers  and  laymen  in  different  sections 
of  the  state,  and  finally  succeeded  in  securing 
the  passage  of  the  "Beattv  Law"  in  the  spring 
of  1888. 

This  law  provided  for  local  option  by  town- 
ships. It  was  enacted  by  a  majority  of  only 
one  vote,  and  but  for  Russell's  special  efforts 
in  a  certain  Senatorial  District  at  a  critical 
point  in  the  fight,  the  measure  would  have  been 
defeated.  A  bare  majority  of  the  senators  had 
given  their  word  to  stand  by  the  proposition. 
A  few  days  before  the  measure  was  to  come 
up,  however,  one  of  the  senators  pledged  to  its 
support  informed  the  temperance  floor  leader 

13 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

of  the  senate  iliat  he  would  be  compelled  to 
withdraw  his  pledge,  as  his  constituency  had 
raised  a  storm  of  protest  against  his  attitude. 
Doctor  Russell  promptly  went  to  the  senator's 
home  town,  instituted  a  campaign  of  letters, 
telegrams  and  personal  interviews  which,  to- 
gether with  other  inlUiences,  brought  the  halt- 
ing senator  back  into  line;  so  that  when  the 
roll  was  called  on  the  final  passage  of  the  local 
option  bill  it  was  adopted  in  the  senate  by  a 
majority  of  just  one  vote. 

This  work  was  all  carried  on  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance, 
and  when  the  campaign  was  over  Russell  made 
his  final  report  and  accounting  to  that  body. 

The  splendid  success  of  this  temporary 
state-wide  movement  made  it  apparent  to 
many  of  those  who  had  been  active  in  the  fight 
that  a  permanent  state  organization  should  be 
formed.  Russell  strongly  advised  such  a 
course,  and  efforts  were  made  at  the  time,  by 
the  Oberlin  Alliance,  to  effect  such  an  organi- 
zation by  counties.  Russell,  however,  who  was 
the  logical  man  for  superintendent,  decided 
that  he  must  fulfill  the  contract  which  he  had 
made  to  become  city  missionary  for  the  Con- 
gregationalists  at  Kansas  City,  Missouri.  Ef- 
forts were  made  to  secure  others  to  lead,  but 

14 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

no  other  man  seemed  to  be  available  at  the 
time,  and  the  state-wide  movement  conse- 
quently became  dormant  for  a  season. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Oberlin  Alliance  held 
on  February  7,  1889,  it  was  proposed  to  or- 
ganize an  Anti-Saloon  League  for  Lorain 
county.  The  movement  took  shape,  and  re- 
sults in  the  county  were  soon  sufficient  to 
further  convince  those  in  charge  that  the  time 
for  a  permanent  state-wide  movement  had 
arrived.  On  two  occasions  between  1888  and 
1893  Russell  was  invited  to  return  to  Oberlin 
and  deliver  temperance  addresses,  and  upon 
both  of  these  occasions  Russell  urged  that  a 
state  organization  be  completed  in  Ohio.  Rus- 
sell was  active  while  in  Chicago,  where  he  had 
gone  from  Kansas  City,  in  the  prosecution  of 
liquor  dealers,  and  in  the  movement  to  close 
the  saloons  on  Sunday  during  the  World's 
Fair.  His  experiences  both  at  Kansas  City 
and  Chicago  led  him  to  still  more  strongly 
yearn  to  see  the  overthrow  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
When  recovering  from  a  serious  illness  at  Chi- 
cago in  November,  1892,  he  resolved  to  start 
another  such  organization  as  soon  as  possible. 
While  convalescing  he  again  visited  Oberlin 
and  talked  with  Doctor  Brand,  Doctor  Tenney 
and  General  Shurtleff,  leading  members  of  the 

15 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Temperance  Alliance,  and  they  encouraged  his 
return  to  Ohio  for  the  purpose  of  renewing  the 
state-wide  fight.  ILirly  in  1893  another  do- 
mestic tragedy  at  Chicago,  where  drink  broke 
up  a  home,  led  him  in  his  sympathy  for  the 
two  orphan  children,  still  nearer  to  his  life 
enlistment  "for  the  war." 

In  the  spring  of  1893  Russell  again  cor- 
responded with  General  Shurtleff,  proposing 
to  take  the  Ohio  state  organization  work  pro- 
vided the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance  would 
help  to  finance  the  movement  until  the  interest 
of  the  temperance  forces  of  the  state  could  be 
enlisted.  General  Shurtleff  took  the  matter  up 
with  Professor  A.  S.  Root  and  other  members 
of  the  Alliance  Executive  Committee,  and  at  a 
meeting  held  during  the  first  week  of  May  the 
committee  extended  an  invitation  to  Russell 
to  come  to  Oberlin  and  personally  present  his 
plan  of  organization.  The  date  settled  upon 
for  the  conference  was  May  24,  1893.  Russell 
went  from  Chicago  to  Oberlin  and  met  the 
committee  in  the  Spear  Library  Building  on 
that  date.  The  plan  was  fully  outlined,  thor- 
oughly discussed  and  finally  adopted.  The 
following  resolution  offered  by  General  G.  W. 
Shurtleff  and  adopted  at  this  meeting  of  the 
Oberlin  Alliance,  was  the  first  recorded  action 

16 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

toward  the  organization  of  the  Ohio  Anti- 
Saloon  League: 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  judgment  of  this  commit- 
tee that  there  is  need  of  a  state  organization  which 
shall  unite  the  churches  and  all  temperance  people  in 
an  effort  to  awaken  an  interest  and  secure  wise  action 
in  destroying  the  open  saloon  and  securing  individual 
total  abstinence ; 

Resolved,  That  this  alliance  will  attempt  to  raise 
$500  toward  the  salary  of  Rev.  Howard  H.  Russell, 
with  the  understanding  that  his  salary  shall  be  at  the 
rate  of  $2,000  a  year  until  such  time  as  that  salary  is 
fixed  by  the  State  Executive  Committee. 

A  resolution  was  also  adopted  at  this  meet- 
ing asking  the  pastors  of  the  churches  to  call 
a  mass  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the 
support  and  co-operation  of  the  church  and 
temperance  forces  of  Oberlin  for  the  new 
movement.  The  mass  meeting  was  held  on 
the  evening  of  Sunday,  June  4,  at  the  First 
Congregational  Church.  All  Oberlin  churches 
joined  in  the  service.  Rev.  Doctor  James 
Brand,  the  pastor,  presided.  General  Shurtlefif 
and  Professor  Root  spoke,  and  Doctor  Russell 
presented  to  the  audience  the  plans  for  the 
proposed  departments  and  methods  of  state 
work.  The  following  resolutions  were  adopt- 
ed by  the  congregation  by  a  rising  vote : 

Assembled  in  a  union  mass  meeting  in  the  First 
Congregational  Church  of  Oberlin,  Ohio,  on  this  4th 

17 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

day  of  June,  1893,  the  friends  of  temperance  in  Oberlin 
adopt  the  following : 

Resolved,  That  it  is  highly  important,  in  our  view, 
that  there  should  be  formed  in  the  state  of  Ohio  an 
organization,  permanent  and  aggressive  in  character,  in 
which  all  classes  of  the  friends  of  temperance  can 
unite,  and  led  by  a  superintendent  who  shall  give  his 
entire  time  to  the  development  and  prosecution  of 
the  work. 

Resolved.  That  this  organization  shall  have  in 
view  the  following  ends:  (i)  The  development  and 
unification  of  a  temperance  public  sentiment  through 
the  agency  of  local  organizations,  public  addresses  and 
such  other  methods  of  education  and  direction  as  may 
from  time  to  time  suggest  themselves ;  (2)  The  en- 
forcement of  laws  already  on  the  statute  books;  (3) 
The  enactment  of  further  legislation  as  public  senti- 
ment may  warrant  in  order  that  our  people  may  be 
saved  from  the  evils  of  the  drink  habit  and  delivered 
from  the  debauching  curse  of  the  drink  traffic;  (4) 
That  to  bring  about  such  an  organization  we  will 
undertake  to  raise  $500  toward  the  expenses  of  the 
same,  and  hereby  authorize  the  officers  of  the  Oberlin 
Temperance  Alliance  to  appoint  temporary  officers 
and  take  whatever  measures  may  be  necessary  to  carry 
this  action  into  effect. 

An  appeal  for  funds  at  this  same  meet- 
ing^ resulted  in  the  securing  of  a  subscription 
amountinie:  to  $513  a  year  for  three  years.  This 
subscription  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first 
public  subscription  taken  for  the  support  of  the 
Anti-Saloon     League.       Russell     immediately 

18 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

closed  up  his  pastorate  at  the  Armour  Mission 
in  Chicago,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  push  the 
work  in  Ohio.  During  the  months  of  July  and 
August,  Elyria,  Medina,  Berea,  Port  Clinton, 
Lakeside  and  other  places  were  visited  by 
Russell  and  local  organizations  were  formed. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Oberlin  Alliance  held 
August  26,  1893,  plans  were  laid  for  a  confer- 
ence at  which  a  provisional  state  organization 
might  be  effected: 

Professor  F.  W.  Jewett,  Secretary  W.  H. 
Pearce  and  Professor  A.  S.  Root  were  made  a 
committee  to  send  out  a  call  for  such  a  con- 
ference, and  Rev.  James  Brand,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  H. 
M.  Tennv,  D.  D.,  and  General  G.  W.  Shurtleff 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  plans 
to  be  submitted  to  the  conference. 

On  Tuesday,  September  5.  1893,  at  2  p.  m., 
the  first  session  of  this  conference  was  held  in 
the  chapel  of  the  First  Congregational  church 
of  Oberlin.  President  Jewett,  of  the  Alliance, 
read  the  call ;  Rev.  John  F.  Brant  was  made 
chairman,  and  Mr.  C.  A.  Metcalf  was  made 
secretary.  Professor  A.  S.  Root,  speaking  for 
the  Alliance,  made  a  statement  as  to  the  origin 
and  purpose  of  the  movement  and  the  part 
which  the  Alliance  had  already  taken  in  the 
work.    Doctor  Russell  reported  that  subscrip- 

19 


m 


ffi^^TORY  OF  THE  ANTI- SALOON  LEAGUE 

.Lu>ns  10  the  amount  of  about  $3,000  a  year  for 
three  years  liad  already  been  received,  and  that 
the  work  was  already  receiving  the  support  of 
many  newspapers,  pastors  and  temperance 
workers.  On  motion  of  Rev.  J.  P.  Mills,  then 
pastor  of  the  Methodist  Church  at  North  Am- 
lierst,  the  conference  proceeded  to  a  provis- 
ional org-anization. 

At  the  evening-  session  of  the  conference,  at 
which  Rev.  James  Brand,  D.  D.,  presided,  a 
final  draft  of  a  proposed  constitution  was  re- 
ported and  adopted;  the  Committee  on  Nom- 
inations reported  a  full  list  of  oflficers,  including 
Rev.  David  O.  Mears,  of  Cleveland,  for  presi- 
dent, five  vice  presidents,  a  secretary,  a  treas- 
urer and  an  Executive  Committee,  which  re- 
port was  adopted  in  full.  Thus,  the  provisional 
organization  of  the  Ohio  Anti-Saloon  League 
was  formally  launched. 

In  the  meantime,  a  non-partisan  organiza- 
tion of  the  "Interdenominational  Christian 
Temperance  Alliance"  had  been  started  by 
Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Kynett  for  the  state  of  Ohio  at 
Columbus  the  previous  February.  Rev.  Dr. 
Taylor  (pastor  Central  Presbyterian  Church, 
Columbus),  the  president  of  the  Kynett  or- 
ganization, wrote  Russell  telling  him  they  had 
an  "unorganized  organization''  and  would  be 

20 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

glad  to  merge  it  into  the  Anti-Saloon  League. 
This  was  done  in  October  by  the  addition  of 
several  of  their  officers  to  the  provisional 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League. 
R.ussell  opened  a  state  headquarters  at  Colum- 
bus and  brought  his  family  there  in  September. 
As  he  could  not  secure  co-operation  in  appoint- 
ments from  the  pastors  and  churches  by  mail, 
Rev.  R.  Hicks,  of  Oberlin,  was  put  into  the 
field  to  make  Russell's  dates,  and  from  Sep- 
tember to  January  Russell  was  continuously 
filling  appointments,  forming  local  committees 
and  raising  subscriptions.  In  November  the 
state  committee  felt  it  was  safe  to  employ  an 
assistant,  and  Rev.  Harry  B.  White,  of  Toledo, 
was  made  the  first  District  Manager.  When 
the  first  legislative  campaign  opened  in  Janu- 
ary, 1894,  and  the  Haskell  Local  Option  Bill 
was  introduced,  Rev.  E.  C.  Dinwiddle,  who  had 
been  employed  by  the  League  in  December, 
1893,  "^^s  called  as  an  assistant  for  the  legis- 
lative department.  E.  W.  Metcalf,  of  Elyria, 
and  A.  L  Root,  of  Medina,  each  contributed  a 
special  gift  of  $500  to  start  the  legislative 
campaign.  By  May,  1894,  the  end  of  the  first 
year's  operations,  three  hundred  local  organi- 
zations (committees)  had  been  formed;  the 
Haskell  Bill  had  received  thirty-six  votes  in 

21 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  House  side  of  the  le£2:islature;  several  town- 
ship local  option  campaiG:ns  had  been  won;  a 
few  local  convictions  of  lawbreakers  had  been 
secured;  a  state  paper,  "Anti-Saloon,"  with  a 
circulation  of  five  thousand  subscribers,  had 
been  started;  ei,c:ht  thousand  dollars  had  been 
raised  for  all  departments  of  state  work,  and 
the  Anti-Saloon  Leap^ue  had  found  a  probable 
footincT  as  a  permanent  state  organization. 

Howard  H.  Russell,  the  man  chosen  in  1888 
to  lead  the  temporary  state  organization  in 
Ohio,  and  who  later  on  was  elected  superin- 
tendent of  the  permanent  state  movement 
when  it  was  be.8:un  at  Oberlin  in  1893,  was 
peculiarly  fitted  for  such  a  service.  After  pre- 
vious experiences,  helpful  in  preparation  for 
this  kind  of  work,  he  had  been  a  successful 
lawyer  in  Iowa  for  six  years,  had  been  a  clergy- 
man for  seven  years  in  city  pastorates  in  Kan- 
sas City  and  Chicago,  and  had  always  been  an 
active  and  efficient  leader  in  local  and  state 
temperance  campaigns.  He  had  studied  at 
Oberlin  for  five  years  and  had  been  stirred  by 
the  Oberlin  spirit  to  activity  and  service  in  the 
field  of  evancrclism  and  reform. 

The  preliminary  movement  looking  toward 
the  creation  of  some  such  organization  as  the 

22 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Anti-Saloon  League  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia began  in  the  spring  of  1893. 

On  March  3  of  that  year,  a  new  liquor 
measure,  passed  by  Congress  for  the  District 
of  Columbia,  was  signed  by  President  Benja- 
min Harrison  and  became  a  law.  While  this 
law  had  been  drafted  in  the  interest  of  the 
liquor  dealers,  some  features  which  were  added 
in  the  form  of  an  amendment  constituted  a 
real  advance  along  the  lines  of  temperance  re- 
form, and  encouraged  many  of  those  interested 
in  the  promotion  of  temperance  in  Washington 
to  follow  up  the  points  of  vantage  gained  and 
revive  in  a  special  way,  if  possible,  the  organiz- 
ed efforts  for  the  suppression  of  the  liquor  evil. 

The  first  public  effort  along  this  line  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  voluntary  organization  of 
what  was  called  "the  No-Compromise  Publish- 
ing Company,"  the  promoters  of  which  includ- 
ed Mr.  Andrew  N.  Canfield,  John  R.  Mahoney, 
Jesse  C.  Suter,  Henry  F.  Smith,  J.  T.  Hensley, 
Professor  H.  R.  Stewart,  T.  L.  Salkeld  and 
others. 

This  company  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  issuing  a  paper  under  the  name,  "No  Com- 
promise," the  primary  reason  for  which  was  to 
get  to  the  public  the  names  of  those  who  from 
time    to    time    signed    indorsements    for    the 

23 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

granting  of  retail  liquor  licenses  in  the  District 
of  Colmnbia,  since  the  daily  newspapers  at  that 
time  in  Washington  refused  to  publish  such 
lists  of  names;  which  publication  the  temper- 
ance forces  of  the  District  felt  would  greatly 
help  in  keeping  many  from  placing  their  names 
to  such  indorsements. 

The  first  issue  of  "No  Compromise"  is  dated 
May,  1893,  and  the  object  of  the  publication  of 
the  paper  and  the  movement  behind  it  is 
shown  in  an  article  which  appeared  on  the 
first  page  of  Number  i,  Volume  I,  entitled,  "A 
Union  of  Forces."  In  this  article  the  pro- 
moters of  "No  Compromise"  set  forth  the 
reasons  why  a  union  of  all  temperance  forces 
in  the  District  should  be  cfifected,  and  an- 
nounced that  a  call  would  soon  be  issued  for 
a  mass  meeting  to  take  up  the  consideration 
of  some  such  movement. 

This  call  followed  early  in  May,  and  the 
meeting  was  held  on  May  12,  1893.  John  R. 
Mahoney  was  made  chairman,  and  W.  Seward 
Rowley  was  chosen  secretary.  A  number  of 
stirring  addresses  were  made  by  Rev.  Scott  F. 
Hershey,  Rev.  Walter  H.  Brooks,  Mr.  F.  M. 
Bradley,  Rev.  J.  J.  Muir,  Rev.  Dr.  Lemon  and 
others.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  make 
arrangements  for  a  larger  mass  meeting  for 

24 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  purpose  of  adopting  some  definite  line  of 
action,  which  committee  consisted  of  H.  R. 
Stewart,  Rev.  W.  H.  Brooks,  F.  M.  Bradley, 
Rev.  J.  J.  Muir,  Rev.  Thos.  B.Marche,  J.  A.  Van 
Vleck,  Rev.  W.  A.  Creditt,  Mrs.  S.  D.  La  Fetra, 
Mrs.  Margaret  B.  Piatt,  Mrs.  W.  S.  Rowley, 
Mrs.  M.  E.  Cohen  and  Mrs.  Gillenwater.  Later 
Rev.  J.  J.  Muir  was  excused  at  his  own  request, 
and  Mr.  John  R.  Mahoney  was  elected  in  his 
place.  Mrs.  H.  K.  Gofif  was  also  added  to  the 
committee. 

Arrangements  were  promptly  made  for  the 
proposed  larger  mass  meeting,  which  took 
place  at  3  o'clock  on  Sunday  afternoon,  June 

4,  1893,  at  the  First  Congregational  Church  at 
Washington.  Rev.  W.  H.  Boole,  D.  D.,  of 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  made  the  principal  ad- 
dress, and  a  resolution  was  adopted  calling  a 
delegated  meeting  of  organizations  with  the 
provision  that  each  organization  would  be  al- 
lowed two  delegates.  This  meeting  of  dele- 
gates duly  appointed  met  at  the  Fletcher 
Chapel  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  on  June 
23,  1893,  ^^^  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  was  duly  formed.    Major 

5.  H.  Walker  was  elected  president,  Mr.  H.  R. 
Stewart  vice  president,  Mrs.  H.  A.  Gillen- 
water recording  secretary,  Mr.  E.  C.  Palmer 

25 


IIISTOKV    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

corresponding  secretary,  and  Mr.  Thos.  B. 
Marche  treasurer.  At  this  meeting,  also,  a 
coniniillce  was  ai)pointcd  to  prepare  a  consti- 
tution and  by-laws.  This  was  done,  and  at  a 
meeting  of  the  League  on  July  7,  1893,  the  con- 
stitution and  by-laws  were  adopted  and  an  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  was  chosen  consisting  of 
John  R.  x\Lihoney,  Mrs.  M.  B.  Piatt,  S.  H. 
Walker,  A.  N.  Canfield,  S.  H.  Williams,  Rev. 
Walter  H.  Brooks  and  E.  J.  Redmond. 

This  executive  committee,  of  which  Mr.  A. 
N.  Canfield  was  made  chairman,  promptly  em- 
ployed Mr.  Jesse  C.  Suter  to  represent  the 
League  before  the  Excise  Board  in  all  matters 
in  which  the  League  was  interested.  Mr. 
Suter  continued  in  the  employ  of  the  League 
until  February  2,  1894,  when  he  resigned  and 
was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Albert  E.  Shoemaker, 
who  is  still  the  attorney  for  the  District 
League. 

The  Ohio  and  District  of  Columbia  Anti- 
Saloon  Leagues,  although  they  proved  to  be 
the  first  successful  attempts  at  a  permanent 
organization  under  the  name,  "The  Anti-Sa- 
loon League,"  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  the 
only  movements  in  this  direction  up  to  that 
time. 

In    1892   there   was   organized   by   a   few 
26 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

earnest  men  in  the  state  of  Massachusetts  an 
"Anti-Saloon  League,"  which,  although  it  was 
not  sufficiently  fortunate  to  stem  the  tide  of 
early  opposition  and  indifference,  nevertheless 
presented  in  the  main  the  same  general  plan 
as  that  afterwards  adopted  by  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  Ohio  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
L.eague,  except  that  it  attempted  to  make  local 
church  bodies  the  units  of  organization.  At 
this  point  the  Massachusetts  movement  com- 
pletely failed. 

Dr.  Russell,  moreover,  made  two  distinct 
attempts  to  organize  an  Anti-Saloon  League 
outside  of  Ohio  before  1893. 

After  the  successful  termination  of  the 
efifort  to  secure  a  township  local  option  law  in 
Ohio,  Russell  accepted  a  call  to  Kansas  City, 
Missouri,  where  he  organized  and  built  the 
Tabernacle  Congregational  Church.  In  1890, 
while  pastor  of  this  church.  Doctor  Russell,  re- 
membering the  success  of  the  temporary  state 
organization  under  his  leadership  in  Ohio,  led 
in  the  formation  of  a  state  organization  in 
Missouri.  At  a  meeting  of  two  hundred  repre- 
sentative delegates,  called  together  by  a  com- 
mittee organized  by  Russell  at  Pertle  Springs, 
Missouri,  in  July,  1890,  the  Missouri  Anti-Sa- 
loon League  was  launched.    Russell  was  elect- 

27 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ed  president,  and  for  the  months  of  July  and 
August,  1890,  during  a  vacation  granted  him 
by  his  cliurch,  he  gave  his  time  without  salary 
to  organizing  local  Leagues  and  to  spreading 
the  movement  throughout  Missouri.  In  Sep- 
tember, when  Russell  returned  to  his  church 
work,  W.  J.  Reese  was  employed  as  field  secre- 
tary for  the  purpose  of  extending  the  local  or- 
ganization work  which  Rdssell  had  begun.  In 
February,  190 1,  however,  Russell  was  called  to 
the  Armour  ]\Iission,  in  Chicago,  and  the  Mis- 
souri movement  gradually  suspended. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  note 
that  when  the  effort  was  made  by  Doctor  Rus- 
.sell  to  organize  the  Anti-Saloon  League  in 
Missouri  he  found  himself  unable  to  secure 
+'unds  sufficient  to  send  out  the  letters  for  a  call 
to  a  state  convention  to  launch  the  League. 
He  made  known  this  situation  to  the  local  or- 
ganization of  the  non-partisan  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  at  Oberlin.  The  con- 
secrated women  who  were  members  of  that 
local  W.  C.  T.  U.  promptly  responded  by  send- 
ing to  Doctor  Russell  a  check  for  fifty  dollars 
to  pay  the  necessary  postage  for  sending  out 
the  call. 

Again,  in  the  spring  of  1893,  while  pastor 
of  the  Armour   Mission  in   Chicago,   Russell 

28 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

heard  that  a  state  convention  had  been  held 
in  Indiana  with  a  view  to  starting  a  state  non- 
partisan temperance  organization,  and  that  a 
minister  at  Kokomo  had  dechned  the  call  to 
be  state  superintendent.  Russell  at  once  went 
to  Terre  Haute  and  conferred  with  Rev.  R.  V. 
Hunter,  D.  D.,  who  had  presided  at  the  state 
meeting,  and  also  to  Indianapolis  to  see  other 
temporary  officers,  but  found  them  unwilling 
to  adopt  the  plan  which  he  had  in  mind,  and  he 
returned  to  his  Chicago  work. 

In  other  sections  of  the  country,  moreover, 
prominent  ministers  and  churchmen  had  draft- 
ed on  paper  suggestions  for  an  organization  of 
a  similar  character  to  the  ones  which  were 
formally  launched  at  Oberlin  and  Washington, 
thus  showing  that  the  need  for  a  common,  ag- 
gressive movement  against  the  liquor  power 
had  appealed  to  the  judgment  of  prominent 
Christian  temperance  men  throughout  the  land 
almost  simultaneously. 

The  organization  of  the  National  League 
was  not  effected  until  December,  1895.  ^^ 
1894,  Archbishop  Ireland,  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  Rev.  A.  J-  Kynett,  D.  D.,  chair- 
man of  the  Permanent  Committee  on  Temper- 
ance and  Prohibition  for  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  traveling  together  on  a  railway 

29 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

train  from  Chicago  to  Philadelphia,  discussed 
the  liquor  problem  at  length  and  agreed  upon 
the  advisability  of  a  plan  for  uniting  all  the 
forces  opposed  to  the  saloon. 

In  the  early  spring  of  the  following  year 
(1895),  Doctor  Kynett  and  Bishop  Luther 
Barton  Wilson,  of  the  Methodist  Church,  then 
pastor  of  Wesley  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Washington,  D.  C,  talked  together  in  re- 
gard to  the  advisability  of  forming  a  national 
organization  along  Anti-Saloon  League  lines, 
and  it  was  suggested  that  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  the  District  of  Columbia  take  the  in- 
itiative in  calling  a  convention  for  the  purpose 
of  organizing  such  a  League.  The  District  of 
Columbia  League,  under  the  leadership  of 
Bishop  Wilson,  having  already  considered 
such  a  move,  promptly  fell  in  line  with  the 
suggestion. 

On  April  15,  1895,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Dis- 
trict ori^anization,  Bishop  Wilson  presented 
the  matter  and  read  a  communication  on  the 
subject  from  Doctor  Kynett.  A  committee  of 
the  District  League  was  appointed  and  author- 
ized to  issue  a  call  sicfned  by  the  president  and 
secretary  of  the  District  Leacrue,  for  a  con- 
sultation preliminary  to  holding  a  convention 
for    the    organization  of  a  National  League. 

30 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

The  committee  was  also  instructed  to  get  in 
touch  with  prominent  temperance  workers 
throughout  the  country  in  order,  if  possible,  to 
secure  their  co-operation  in  the  enterprise. 

After  some  correspondence,  the  committee 
found  an  almost  unanimous  sentiment  in  favor 
of  the  movement,  but  also  found  that  a  later 
date  than  the  one  selected  would  be  preferable. 
The  District  League,  therefore,  proceeded 
with  the  work  of  preparing  and  issuing  the 
proposed  call.  This  preparatory  work  was 
very  largely  done  by  Mr.  James  L.  Ewin,  who 
drafted  the  call  and  whose  office  force  was 
employed  in  the  clerical  work  necessary  with- 
out stint.  Mr.  Ewin,  a  patent  attorney  of 
Washington,  had  already  been  very  active  in 
the  work  of  the  District  League,  and  was  one 
of  those  whose  devotion  to  the  cause  in  those 
early  days  was  of  a  character  that  demanded 
sacrifice  and  service  of  a  degree  to  which  but 
few  of  the  League's  friends  in  the  beginning 
were  willing  to  go.  The  nature  of  his  business 
was  such  that  the  boycott  methods  of  the 
liquor  interests  could  easily  and  quickly  affect 
it,  and  that  the  sympathizers  of  the  saloon  saw 
the  opportunity  and  used  it  with  telling  effect, 
the  records  of  Mr.  Ewin's  office  before  and 
after  his  activity  along  League  lines  show  con- 

31 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

\  incing  cvickncc.  Tliis,  however,  in  no  sense 
affected  Mr.  IC win's  zeal  and  activity;  he  be- 
came cviMi  more  active  than  before,  and  his 
sincere  and  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the 
LeaLjue  and  its  work  has  continued  to  the 
present  time,  in  spite  of  discouragements  and 
obstacles  whicli  would  easily  have  dampened 
the  ardor  of  a  less  determined  and  sacrificing 
si)irit. 

Mr.  Ewin  was  present  at  the  mass  meet- 
ing which  authorized  the  District  of  Columbia 
League  organization  on  June  4,  1893.  He  was 
one  of  the  early  members  of  the  District 
League,  having  been  sent  as  a  delegate  from 
the  Sunday  School  Temperance  Society  of 
Foundry  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  He  was  the  first  vice  president 
of  the  District  organization,  and  executive 
officer  under  President  Luther  B.  Wilson, 
1894-1895;  president  for  eleven  years,  1896- 
1906;  editor  The  Protest,  the  of^cial  organ  of 
the  District  League,  1902-1908,  and  at  present 
])residcnt  pro  tem  of  that  organization.  His 
office  was  the  headquarters  of  the  District 
League  for  thirteen  years,  1894-1906.  He  was 
also  secretary  of  the  First,  Second,  Third  and 
Fourth  National  Conventions;  compiled  and 
published  the  proceedings  of  the  First,  Second 

32 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

and  Third  Conventions;  was  secretary  of  the 
National  League  from  December,  1895,  to  De- 
cember, 1898;  was  a  member  of  the  National 
Executive  Committee  from  1899  to  1901 ;  cor- 
responding secretary,  1902-3  and  1906-9,  and 
chairman  of  the  National  Executive  Commit- 
tee, 1 899- 1 90 1. 

The  call  drafted  by  Mr.  Ewin  and  sent  out 
from  his  office  was  finally  issued  on  October 
18,  1895,  and  the  convention  met  in  Calvary 
Baptist  Sunday  school  house  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  on  Tuesday,  December  17,  and,  on  Wed- 
nesday, December  18,  1895,  the  American  Anti- 
Saloon  League  was  formed  by  the  coalition  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Ohio  and 
forty-five  other  state,  national  and  local  tem- 
perance organizations.  Hon.  Hiram  Price,  of 
Washington,  D.  C,  was  elected  president;  Rev. 
Luther  B.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  (Bishop  Wil- 
son), first  vice  president;  Archbishop  John  Ire- 
land, of  Minnesota,  second  vice  president; 
Rev.  John  J.  Beacom,  of  Pennsylvania,  third 
vice  president;  Mr.  James  L.  Ewin,  recording 
secretary;  Mr.  F.  W.  Walsh,  Jr.,  of  Massachu- 
setts, treasurer;  Rev.  Howard  H.  Russell,  su- 
perintendent of  the  Ohio  League,  was  made 
National    Superintendent;   and   an    Executive 

33 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Committee  was  elected  consisting  of  the  fol- 
lowing members,  in  addition  to  the  officers: 
Hon.  Elijah  A.  Morse,  M.  C,  of  Massachu- 
setts; Rev.  A.  J.  Kynett,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of 
Pennsylvania ;  Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  of  Mis- 
sissippi; Rev.  Harry  B.  White,  of  Ohio;  Bishop 
E.  B.  Kephart,  of  Maryland ;  Mrs.  Annie  Wit- 
tcnmyer,  of  Pennsylvania;  Rev.  F.  N.  Lynch, 
of  West  Virginia;  and  Rev.  F.  M.  Edwards,  of 
Virginia.  Doctor  Kynett  was  elected  presi- 
dent, and  Rev.  Alford  Noon,  Ph.  D.,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, secretary  of  the  National  Board  of 
Direction. 

The  death  of  Hon.  Hiram  Price  in  May, 
1901,  left  the  presidency  of  the  National 
League  vacant  until  the  time  of  the  National 
Convention,  in  December  of  the  same  year. 
At  this  convention,  Rev.  Luther  B.  Wilson, 
D.  D.  (Bishop  Wilson),  was  elected  to  succeed 
Mr.  Price  as  president,  and  has  remained  at 
the  head  of  the  League  from  that  time. 

Others  who  have  served  from  time  to  time 
as  vice-presidents  of  the  national  organization 
are:  P.  S.  Henderson,  D.  D.;  B.  B.  Tyler,  D. 
D.;  Newman  Smyth,  D.  D. ;  Bishop  B.  W. 
Arnett;  William  C.  Lilley;  Hon.  John  D. 
Long;  Rev.  J.  Q.  A.  Henry;  Judge  Charles  A. 
Pollock;  Rev.  G.  S.  Burroughs,  D.  D. ;  Bishop 

34 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

Charles  B.  Galloway;  Rev.  David  J.  Burrell, 
D.  D.;  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton;  F.  D.  Power, 

D.  D.;  Rev.  Father  James  M.  Cleary;  Prof.  E. 
W.  B.  Curry;  Mr.  Jesse  C.  McDowell;  Bishop 

E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  W.  B.  Crumpton,  D. 
D.;  Bishop  G.  M.  Matthews;  Rev.  Washington 
Gladden,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  William  L.  McEwan,  D. 
D.;  Rev.  J.  C.  Barr,  D.  D;  Rev.  Doctor  ElHs; 
Bishop  H.  C.  Morrison;  Bishop  W.  N.  Mc- 
Vickar;   Bishop   Samuel    P.    Spreng;   Rev.    R. 

F.  Coyle,  D.  D. ;  and  Rev.  J.  H.  O.  Smith,  D.  D. 

Additional  treasurers  of  the  National 
League  since  its  organization  have  been: 
Hon.  John  W.  Cummins ;  Mr.  William  C.  Lil- 
ley;  Prof.  J.  M.  Barker,  Ph.  D. ;  Dr.  D.  H.  Car- 
roll; and  Mr.  Foster  Copeland. 

So  far  as  the  first  permanent  official  organi- 
zation under  the  name,  "The  Anti-Saloon 
League,"  is  concerned,  that  organization  took 
place  in  Washington,  D.  C,  when  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  the  District  of  Columbia  was 
organized  on  June  23,  1893.  To  that  District 
organization  also  unquestionably  belongs  the 
credit  for  the  initial  step  which  resulted  in  the 
convention  at  which  the  organization  of  the 
National  Anti-Saloon  League  (later  changed 
to  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America)  was 
effected.    So  far,  however,  as  the  Anti-Saloon 

35 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 


League  movement  is  concerned,  as  that  move- 
ment is  now  known  and  represented  by  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  of  America  and  the  Anti- 
Saloon  Leagues  of  the  several  states,  that 
movement  without  doubt  had  its  origin  at 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  and  was  the  logical  and  natural 
(•ffspring  of  the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  the  District  of  Columbia  was  a  mere 
paper  organization  or  that  it  was  not  what  its 
name  signifies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  the  District  of  Columbia  has 
met  the  demands  in  the  District.  In  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  its  most  important  work  has 
been  that  of  law  enforcement.  Since  Congress 
is  the  legislative  body  for  the  District,  natur- 
ally the  temperance  forces  of  Washington  and 
vicinity  are  dependent  largely  upon  the  work 
of  the  states  for  the  kind  of  legislation  secured. 
Nevertheless,  the  record  of  the  District  League 
shows  that  the  pioneers  of  the  movement  there 
had  in  mind  the  League  idea,  and  that  the 
movement  there  has  w^orked  the  threefold 
Anti-Saloon  League  plan  of  agitation,  legisla- 
tion and  law  enforcement. 

The  movement  born  in  Ohio  differed  from 
the  movement  born  in  Washington  in  three 
marked  particulars:     First,  The  Ohio  League 

36 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

included  the  idea  of  an  active  executive  officer, 
the  "executive  human  shoulder,"  as  it  was 
termed  by  Doctor  Kynett,  w^ith  assistant  su- 
perintendents and  agents  giving  their  entire 
thought  and  undivided  attention  to  the  direc- 
tion of  the  League  v^ork.  Second,  The  Ohio 
plan  included  a  financial  system  founded  on  the 
per-month  subscription  card  now  used  by  all 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  organizations  every- 
where; which  system,  perhaps,  more  than  any 
other  one  thing,  aside  from  the  active  State 
Superintendent  idea,  has  been  mainly  respon- 
sible for  the  success  achieved  by  the  League 
movement  throughout  the  nation,  not  only  in 
solving  the  problem  of  financial  support,  so 
essential,  but  more  especially  in  securing  the 
active  co-operation  and  close  affiliation  of  the 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  small  monthly  con- 
tributors, every  one  of  whom  has  had  a  per- 
sonal and  direct  interest  in  seeing  that  all 
phases  of  the  League  work  received  the  largest 
possible  measure  of  co-operation  and  active 
support  in  their  local  communities,  as  well  as 
in  the  larger  political  units.  Third,  The  Ohio 
organization,  from  its  inception,  devoted  the 
major  part  of  its  efi'orts  to  the  securing  of 
proper  temperance  legislation  in  the  state  law- 
making body,  by  directly  applying  itself  to  the 

37 


3bJ^^SH'- 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

defeat  of  candidates  for  the  state  legislature 
who  were  against  the  measures  supported  by 
tile  League,  as  well  as  to  the  election  of  such 
men  to  the  legislature  as  could  be  depended  up- 
on to  stand  by  the  temperance  forces  in  the 
effort  to  secure  remedial  temperance  legisla- 
tion and  to  block  the  progress  of  measures 
favorable  to  the  liquor  interest. 

These  differences,  due  perhaps  largely  to 
the  difTerent  form  of  government  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  and  in  the  states,  have  un- 
questionably been  responsible  for  the  fact  that 
the  movement  most  commonly  known  as  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  in  the  several  states  has 
followed  the  plan  of  organization  which  orig- 
inated with  the  birth  of  the  Ohio  Anti-Saloon 
League  at  Oberlin.  Nine  out  of  every  ten  of 
the  state  superintendents  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
Leagues  of  the  several  states,  as  well  as  dis- 
trict superintendents  and  field  secretaries,  now 
numbering  several  hundred,  either  received 
their  training  or  experience  in  League  work  in 
the  Ohio  League  or  in  a  State  League  organiz- 
ed on  the  "Ohio  model."  A  significant  fact  in 
this  connection  is  that  thirty-four  State  Su- 
perintendents of  the  Anti-Saloon  Leagues  of 
the  several  states  since  the  birth  of  the  move- 
ment have  been  secured  from  Ohio.    The  Anti- 

38 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Saloon  League,  therefore,  as  it  is  known 
and  recognized  today  in  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  America  and  in  the  several  State 
Anti-Saloon  Leagues  which  are  affiliated  with 
the  national  organization,  was  unquestionably 
born  at  Oberlin.  Whether  the  date  of  birth 
may  be  said  to  have  been  when  the  Ohio  Anti- 
Saloon  League  was  formally  organized  on 
vSeptember  5,  1893,  whether  at  the  mass  meet- 
ing on  June  4,  1893,  when  the  first  special  fund 
was  raised  for  its  support,  whether  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Alliance  on  May  24,  when 
Russell  was  employed  as  superintendent  of 
the  movement,  or  whether  in  1887,  when  the 
non-partisan,  interdenominational  movement 
known  as  the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance, 
put  Russell  in  the  field  and  began  the  state-wide 
movement  for  a  township  local  option  bill,  is 
really  only  a  matter  of  passing  interest. 

That  the  unique  plan  of  the  present  Anti- 
Saloon  League  movement,  with  the  three  pe- 
culiar essentials  above  referred  to,  originated 
out  of  the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance  and 
was  born  under  the  influence  and  in  the  re- 
markable reform  atmosphere  of  that  Western 
Reserve  College  town,  is  the  essential  fact 
which  must  forever  stand  out  as  the  important 

39 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

iriilh  in  connection  with  the  birthplace  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  movement. 

The  Anti-Saloon  League  came  into  ex- 
istence as  a  natural  evolution  of  the  reform 
spirit  of  the  .times.  That  spirit  did  not  mani- 
fest itself  alone  in  any  one  man  or  in  any  one 
particular  company  of  men,  either  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  movement  or  in  its  development 
since.  To  the  hundreds  of  consecrated,  earnest 
men  and  women  who  have  toiled,  sacrificed 
and  stubbornly  pressed  the  battle  on  the  firing 
line  of  this  new  crusade  during  the  twenty 
years  of  its  existence,  must  be  given  in  divided 
portions  the  credit  for  creating  the  movement 
and  for  building  the  great  organization  which 
in  the  last  analysis  must  be  said  to  have  been 
divinely  or  providentially  appointed.  But  if 
there  is  one  man,  who  above  any  other  has  the 
right  to  justly  claim  the  honor  of  having 
founded  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  the  unpreju- 
diced investigator,  in  view  of  all  the  evidence 
available  and  all  the  testimony  which  has  been 
given  on  all  sides  of  the  question,  must  un- 
questionably be  compelled  to  give  that  honor 
to  Howard  H.  Russell. 

Not  that  he  sacrificed  more  than  many 
others,  not  that  he  had  greater  ability  than 
others,  not  that  his  devotion  to  the  cause  was 

40 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

stronger  than  that  of  others,  not  that  others 
under  the  same  circumstances  and  conditions 
might  not  have  done  so  much  as  he  did  or  se- 
cured so  large  a  measure  of  tangible  results  in 
the  beginning,  but  simply  that  the  facts  as  they 
are  show  beyond  the  question  of  a  reasonable 
doubt  that  Howard  H.  Russell  was  the  leader 
of  all  the  leading  spirits  in  the  inauguration  of 
the  League  movement,  and  the  principal  pro- 
moter in  the  early  days  of  its  struggle  for  ex- 
istence. 

The  Anti-Saloon  League  movement  has 
been  successful  in  the  United  States  because 
of  the  special  circumstances  attending  its 
genesis  and  development.  A  conflict  started 
in  1893,  against  the  rich,  well-organized,  pow- 
erful and  politically  entrenched  liquor  trust, 
was  by  all  existing  human  standards  and  ex- 
periences foredoomed  to  failure. 

The  unique  combination  of  elements  and 
constituents  prepared  and  combined  to  initiate 
and  promote  a  victorious  cause  may  be  sum- 
marized as  follows: 

First,  A  leader  providentially  called,  who 
was  equipped  with  the  following  qualities  and 
training:  i.  A  lawyer  of  seven  years'  very 
active  general  practice,  frequently  prosecuting 
lawless  saloon  men.    2.  A  clergyman  for  seven 

41 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

vears  in  important  pastorates,  five  in  large 
cities  and  all  in  the  midst  of  constant  war 
against  saloons.  3.  A  previous  diversified  ex- 
perience as  government  clerk,  frontiersman, 
newspaper  man,  teacher  and  superintendent 
of  schools.  4.  A  man  with  a  hereditary  bent 
for  organization,  having  the  confidence  of  the 
public,  based  upon  previous  record  of  success 
in  temperance  leadership.  5.  One  with  a  burn- 
ing hatred  of  the  saloon  because  when  a  youth 
it  nearly  entrapped  him;  because  for  fifteen 
years  it  had  buffeted  and  almost  despoiled  a 
brother;  because  it  had  sent  three  near  rela- 
tives and  many  close  friends  to  premature 
graves,  and  because  in  his  pastorates  the 
tragedies  of  the  saloon  were  ever  before  him. 
6.  One  with  a  Pauline  conversion  with  the 
spirit  of  sacrifice  and  service.  7.  A  wife  in  full 
sympathy,  of  simple  tastes,  economical  thrift, 
and  a  sublime  power  of  sacrifice  for  duty.  8. 
One  gifted  in  persuasive  speech;  of  strong  and 
wiry  physical  strength  and  endurance;  firm  for 
reform  yet  tactful  and  diplomatic;  skillful  in 
the  raising  of  funds;  absolutely  fearless  and 
staunch  in  character.  9.  One  willing  to  accept 
the  unpleasant  features  of  the  duty — absence 
from  home  and  the  hardships  of  early,  inade- 
quate support  and  able  to  hold  on  with  tenacity 

42 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

when,  again  and  again,  everything  seemed  to 
indicate  that  defeat  had  come. 

Second,  A  providential  environment  for  its 
genesis.  Oberlin  had  been  founded  by  re- 
formers. Finney,  Mahan,  Fairchild  and  Tap- 
pan  v^ere  all  sturdy  men  of  devotion  to  duty. 
In  its  justice  to  women,  its  anti-slavery  spirit, 
its  patriotism  and  its  prolonged  and  militant 
anti-saloon  warfare,  it  was  the  very  place  of  all 
places  to  cradle  and  nourish  the  anti-saloon 
movement.  Where  else  in  the  United  States 
could  a  community  of  2,000  people  have  been 
found  who  would  have  become  sponsors  for 
the  movement  and  out  of  meagre  resources 
would  have  contributed  such  steady  and  gen- 
erous financial  support?  For,  in  addition  to 
aggregate  gifts  of  nearly  $1,000  annually,  on 
two  occasions  Oberlin  has  added  another 
thousand  dollars  to  her  regular  support. 
Northern  Ohio,  with  its  Western  Reserve,  too, 
was  full  of  the  New  England  spirit  of  reform 
which  helped  in  the  early  expansion  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League's  environment.  Ohio 
also,  as  a  state,  taken  as  a  whole,  has  been  a 
good  seed-bed  in  which  to  plant  and  propagate 
a  new  "idee"  for  human  welfare.  It  is  full  of 
schools,  thinkers  and  virile  doers  of  deeds..  It 
was  the  state  in  which,  in  1893,  ^^^  ^^^^  was 

43 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ripe  for  an  answer  by  an  organization  of  men 
to  the  prayers  of  the  women  of  1873. 

Third,  Inspired  methods  of  organization. 
I.  The  essential  needs  of  the  reform — first, 
agitation;  second,  legislation,  and,  third,  law 
enforcement,  were  fortunately  combined  in  the 
work  proposed  to  be  done  locally  and  state- 
wide. 2.  In  this  League  also  it  was  to  be 
demonstrated  that  the  waser  method  was  the 
iion-partisan  or  omni-partisan  political  meth- 
od. In  the  primaries  and  at  the  polls  it  has 
been  possible  to  secure,  through  state  legisla- 
tures and  at  last  through  the  Congress,  a  dom- 
inant majority  who,  though  members  of 
various  parties,  unite  to  forget  their  partyism 
and  factionalism,  and  to  execute  upon  this 
paramount  question  the  will  of  their  constitu- 
ents at  home.  3.  Difficult  of  achievement  as 
it  was  at  the  time,  this  League  further  pro- 
posed to  unite  the  various  churches  for  tem- 
perance reform  regardless  of  their  sect  or 
creed.  The  working  of  this  miracle  set  the 
death-seal  upon  the  liquor  traffic  of  America. 
4.  Adequate  financial  support,  another  abso- 
lute essential,  also  was  an  inspired  feature. 
The  monthly  subscription  card  invented  and 
used  by  the  founder,  and  after  him  by  his  pu- 
pils and  associates  in  the  leadership,  has  been 

44 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  lifebuoy  for  the  movement  in  all  the  states, 
as,  into  one  after  another,  the  Ohio  model  has 
been  almost  universally  installed.  5.  The 
early  plan  of  administration  which  took  care 
to  provide  for  the  selection  instead  of  election 
of  Managing  Boards  or  Trustees,  until  a  per- 
manent non-partisan  footing  was  insured,  has 
been  essential  to  prevent  the  capture  and  de- 
struction of  the  organization  by  unfriendly 
partisans.  6.  Altogether  essential,  too,  was 
the  plan  to  provide  supervision  in  office  and 
field  by  men  who  devoted  their  entire  time  and 
strength  to  the  service.  Volunteer  aides  giv- 
ing part  time  have  been  availed  of,  but  no  State 
League  would  have  been  victorious  without 
the  State  Superintendent  and  his  district  as- 
sistants constantly  employed. 

The  Anti-Saloon  League  system  thus  set  in 
motion  by  the  Oberlin  Temperance  Alliance 
and  at  last  developed  into  a  conquering  force 
in  Ohio,  and  from  there  expanded  into  the 
other  states  of  the  Union,  must  be  deemed  the 
basic  and  historic  germinant  and  developed 
system  of  Anti-Saloon  League  organization. 
Other  agencies  which  have,  from  time  to  time, 
affiliated  or  co-operated  in  anti-saloon  work 
have  all  been  merely  tributary  to  this  main 
stream  of  influence  and  power,  and  not  only 

45 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

have  all  the  other  State  Leagues  of  the  Union 
adopted  what  was  termed  at  the  Convention 
of  1895  (called  to  organized  the  National 
League)  the  "Ohio  System,"  or  the  "Ohio 
Model,"  in  their  organized  anti-saloon  work; 
but  the  Canadian  anti-liquor  organization,  the 
Canadian  Temperance  Alliance,  has  done  the 
same;  and  its  officers  give  due  honor  and  credit 
for  their  largely  increased  income,  equipment 
and  efficiency  to  the  Anti-Saloon  League 
methods  of  service  which  the  anti-saloon 
forces  in  the  states  have  been  happy  to  have 
their  Canadian  brothers  import,  free  of  duty, 
across  the  border. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League,  the  results  of  its  work  during  the  first 
twenty  years  of  its  existence,  together  with 
the  consternation  which  it  has  succeeded  in 
bringing  to  the  ranks  of  the  liquor  forces,  are 
nothing  short  of  marvelous — a  record,  indeed, 
wiiich,  in  point  of  time,  may  be  truthfully  said 
is  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  other  great  moral 
reform  of  history. 

This  matchless  record  of  achievement, 
however,  has  not  been  merely  accidental.  It 
is  the  record  of  long  years  of  sacrifice,  patient 
toil  and  persistent  devotion  to  a  great  cause. 


46 


Chapter  IL 
The  Struggle  for  Existence 


Then  welcome  each  rebuff 
That  turns  earth's  smoothness  rough, 
Each  sting  that  bids  nor  sit  nor  stand,  but  go! 
Be  our  joys  three  parts  pain! 
Strive,  and  hold  cheap  the  strain; 
Learn,  nor  account  the  pang;  dare, 
never  grudge  the  throe! 

— Robert  Browning. 


The  Struggle  for  Existence 


THE  first  three  years  of  the  history  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  movement 
may  well  be  termed,  "The  Struggle 
for  Existence."  Denominational 
ties  were  strong.  Political  prejudices  were 
deep-rooted,  and  any  movement  attempting  to 
overcome  such  prejudices,  for  whatever  pur- 
pose, was  at  once  face  to  face  with  a  task  of 
Herculean  proportions.  Temperance  men 
and  women  prominent  in  various  reform  or- 
ganizations stood  aloof,  awaiting  develop- 
ments. Financial  support  was  extremely 
meager,  and  the  Christian  public  seemed  in- 
clined to  wait  for  the  new  movement  to  dem- 
onstrate its  fitness  to  survive  without  giving  it 
even  a  fair  chance  for  such  demonstration. 

There  were  many  times  during  these  early 
years  when,  but  for  timely  financial  assistance 
which  seemed  almost  divinely  provided,  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  as  a  real,  militant  organi- 
zation might  have  found  an  early  grave.  One 
of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of  this  kind 
occurred  in  Ohio  at  a  time  when  prospects  of 
continuing  to  do  business    and    maintain    an 

49 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

office  from  day  to  day  were  most  discouraging. 
Doctor  Russell,  the  State  Superintendent,  had 
borrowed  to  the  liwiit  of  the  credit  of  both  the 
League  and  himself,  and  had  been  driven  to 
the  necessity  of  pawning  his  watch  in  order 
to  meet  certain  small  expenses  which  had  to 
be  met.  It  was  under  such  stress  as  this  that 
Doctor  Russell  went  to  the  late  E.  W.  Met- 
calf,  of  Elyria,  Ohio,  and  appealed  for  im- 
mediate help.  After  Doctor  Russell  had  left 
Mr.  Metcalf's  house,  the  latter  become  con- 
vinced that  it  was  his  duty  not  only  to  pour 
into  the  movement  as  much  money  as  he  him- 
self could  afiford,  but  also  that  an  impelling 
obligation  was  upon  him  to  enlist  others  in  the 
financial  support  of  the  movement. 

He  knew  of  Mr.  A.  L  Root,  the  president 
of  the  Root  Bee  Company,  at  Medina,  Ohio, 
who  was  a  prominent  layman  in  the  Congre- 
tional  Church,  to  which  denomination  Mr. 
Metcalf  also  belonged.  So  convinced  was  Mr. 
Metcalf  that  he  had  been  divinely  commis- 
sioned to  get  special  financial  co-operation 
from  Mr.  Root  that  he  took  the  train  for 
Medina,  promptly  went  to  Mr.  Root's  ofifice 
and  laid  the  matter  before  him. 

Mr.  Root,  who  had  always  been  a  very  lib- 
eral contributor  to  all  the  church  benevolent 

50 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

enterprises,  was  just  at  this  time  hard  pressed 
financially.  The  Root  Company  was  close  run 
for  funds,  and  the  prospects  for  the  year's 
business  were  not  extraordinarily  good.  Mr. 
Root  had  already  sent  to  Doctor  Russell  his 
Anti-Saloon  League  contribution  for  the  year. 
Mr.  Root,  therefore,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Metcalf's 
appeal,  said  that  he  had  given  all  that  he  could 
possibly  give,  and  that  his  obligations  along 
other  lines  were  such  that  he  must  meet  them, 
at  the  same  time  being  financially  hard  pressed. 
Mr.  Metcalf,  however,  seemed  inspired. 
He  laid  before  Mr.  Root  the  situation  as  it 
was.  He  told  him  that  he  believed  this  move- 
ment to  be  the  beginning  of  a  great  national 
movement  against  the  saloon,  but  that  the 
work  could  not  go  forward  unless  he  (Mr.  Met- 
calf) and  Mr.  Root  came  to  the  rescue  at  that 
critical  time  with  a  check  for  five  hundred 
dollars  each.  Mr.  Root  finally  became  con- 
vinced that  Mr.  Metcalf  had  been  divinely  sent 
to  him  on  this  mission  and,  after  having  con- 
sulted with  his  son,  Mr.  Ernest  R.  Root,  who, 
having  heard  the  conversation,  strangely 
enough  had  reached  the  same  conclusion,  he 
wrote  out  his  check  for  five  hundred  dollars, 
which  was  promptly  forwarded,  with  a  similar 
one  from  Mr.  Metcalf  himself,  to  Doctor  Rus- 

51 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

sell  in  Columbus.  So  long  as  Mr.  Metcalf  lived 
he  continued  to  contribute  largely  year  after 
year,  while  the  A.  L  Root  Company  has  con- 
tinued to  make  annual  contributions  of  in- 
creasing amounts  until  the  present  time,  the 
total  amount  contributed  by  this  one  firm  to 
the  League  movement  since  that  time  amount- 
ing to  about  thirty  thousand  dollars. 

There  were  many  other  times  in  the  early 
history  of  the  movement  when  financial  as- 
sistance at  the  time  of  an  impending  crisis 
came  in  a  way  that  seemed  providential. 
There  were  sacrifices  in  the  early  days  of  the 
League,  made  by  men  who  were  among  the 
early  workers,  of  which  the  world  will  never 
know.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  to  accept  a  posi- 
tion with  the  League  during  the  first  years  of 
its  existence  meant  sacrifice  as  a  part  of  the 
price  for  the  opportunity  for  service.  This 
was  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Canfield, 
of  Washington,  D.  C,  who  was  the  leading 
spirit  in  the  organization  of  the  District  of 
Columbia  League.  Mr.  Canfield  was  employ- 
ed in  the  government  civil  service  at  Wash- 
ington. When  the  liquor  interests  of  Wash- 
ington began  to  feel  the  effects  of  his  influence 
and  work  against  them,  they  brought  pressure 
to  bear  upon  the  congressman  from  his  home 

52 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

district,  through  whom  he  had  secured  his 
position.  When,  however,  it  was  suggested  to 
Mr.  Canfield  that  he  might  lose  his  position  if 
his  anti-saloon  activities  continued,  he  prompt- 
ly refused  to  be  silenced,  and  added  that,  so  far 
as  his  position  was  concerned,  he  was  willing 
to  run  the  risk  and,  if  necessary,  take  the  issue 
to  the  people  of  his  Congressional  District, 
which  district,  fortunately,  was  even  at  that 
time  strongly  against  the  liquor  traffic. 

To  even  briefly  give  a  history  of  the  sacri- 
fices of  the  men  who  became  the  early  pioneers 
of  the  League  would  require  a  book  in  itself 
larger  than  this  brief  history.  Carhart,  of 
South  Dakota;  Colman,  of  Wisconsin;  Craw- 
ford, of  Minnesota;  Harry  White,  of  Ohio; 
Saunderson,  Hartley,  Henry,  Hubbard,  Brad- 
ley and  Walker  are  but  a  few  of  those  in 
addition  to  those  already  mentioned  and  others 
still  actively  connected  with  the  League  move- 
ment, whose  names  must  for  all  time  be  inter- 
woven with  the  detailed  history  of  the  early 
struggles  and  hardships  in  the  several  states, 
and  whose  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  service  made 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  a  permanent  move- 
ment. Moreover,  the  names  of  scores  of  the 
real  heroes  of  the  League's  struggle  for  ex- 
istence,  including  the  wives   and   children   of 

53 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  men  who  went  out  upon  the  firing  line, 
will  never  be  known;  for,  like  the  tens  of 
tlKuisands  of  those  who  sacrificed  most  in  the 
terrific  struggle  of  the  sixties,  they  belong  to 
the  class  marked  by  the  word,  "Unknown." 

The  men  who  in  this  day  of  achievement 
and  victory  give  themselves,  with  their  time 
and  efiforts,  to  the  promotion  of  a  winning 
cause,  can  know  but  little  of  what  it  meant  in 
the  early,  doubtful  days  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League's  existence  for  men  to  cut  loose  from 
positions  which  insured  a  livelihood  to  throw 
themselves  into  a  struggle  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  movement  for  temperance  reform,  with 
but  meager  prospects  that  they  would  be  able 
to  maintain  themselves  while  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  was  on  trial  for  its  life. 

Immediately  after  the  launching  of  the 
National  Anti-Saloon  League  in  1895,  the  work 
of  organizing  the  movement  in  the  several 
states  was  begun  and  vigorously  prosecuted. 
The  following  year,  1896,  witnessed  the  or- 
ganization of  branches  of  the  League  in  Penn- 
sylvania, South  Dakota,  Michigan,  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Iowa.  The  Anti-Saloon  Leagues  of 
Nebraska,  Northern  and  Southern  California 
and  Tennessee  were  organized  in  1897.  ^" 
1899,  New  Hampshire,  New  York,  Colorado 

54 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

and  Arkansas  fell  into  line,  making  in  all 
twenty-one  states  and  territories  where  the 
League  movement  was  started  during  the  first 
five  years  of  the  National  League's  activities. 

In  several  of  these  states  the  first  organiza- 
tion was  not  permanently  successful,  and  in 
some  of  them  several  years  elapsed  after  the 
first  organization  before  the  right  men  were 
found  and  adequate  financial  and  moral  sup- 
port was  secured  to  make  the'  movement  per- 
manent and  efifective.  But  the  seed  sown  in 
the  first  half-decade  in  these  twenty-one  states 
have  since  borne  a  rich  harvest,  and  the  move- 
ment, though  dormant  for  a  time  in  some  of 
these  states,  never  died. 

During  these  first  years  of  organization  not 
much  in  the  way  of  tangible  results  was  se- 
cured. In  a  number  of  state's,  however,  helpful 
legislation  was  enacted,  the  number  of  saloons 
was  reduced,  and  there  were  other  evidences  of 
the  results  of  organized  effort.  The  first  three 
years  of  the  League's  existence  in  the  state  of 
Ohio  showed  a  reduction  of  1,442  in  the  num- 
ber of  retail  liquor  establishments  in  that  state, 
whereas,  before  1893,  when  the  League  was  or- 
ganized, the  number  had  been  steadily  in- 
creasing from  year  to  year.  The  League's 
local  option  bill,  moreover,  which  was  present- 

55 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ed  to  the  Ohio  legislature,  received  thirty-six 
and  fifty  votes  respectively,  in  the  legislatures 
of  1894  and  1896;  but  a  similar  measure  v^as 
smothered  in  committee  in  the  legislative  ses- 
sion of  1898. 

Van  Buren  county,  Michigan,  during  this 
period,  abolished  the  saloons  under  the  county 
option  law  of  that  state,  and  Tennessee's 
four-mile  law,  prohibiting  saloons  in  rural  dis- 
tricts, was  extended  to  include  cities  of  2,000 
or  less  than  2,000  population.  Over  against 
these  victories,  however,  were  a  number  of  set- 
backs to  the  temperance  cause.  The  Prohibi- 
tion law  of  South  Dakota  was  repealed  in  1897, 
and  the  poor  enforcement  of  the  laws  in  other 
Prohibition  states  showed  increasingly  the 
need  of  a  real,  practical  revival  in  anti-liquor 
activity. 

It  was  soon  manifest  that  the  mere  or- 
ganization of  an  Anti-Saloon  League  in  any 
state  was  far  from  sufficient  to  bring  results. 
The  League  was  not  a  machine  that  could  run 
itself.  The  human  shoulder  was  absolutely 
essential.  There  was  a  crying  need  for  field 
men  to  give  their  entire  time  to  the  work  of 
agitation  and  organization.  Each  state 
promptly  came  to  a  realization  of  the  need  of 
an  official  paper,  through  which  the  League 

56 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

might  speak  to  the  Christian  pubHc.  There 
was  need  for  Hterature,  tracts,  leaflets,  pam- 
phlets and  periodicals  bearing  upon  the  League 
work  and  presenting  to  the  public  the  general 
economic  and  social  aspects  of  the  liquor  ques- 
tion before  the  League  could  hope  to  crystal- 
lize the  sentiment  already  in  existence  against 
the  liquor  traffic.  The  three  years  of  1900, 
1901  and  1902,  therefore,  witnessed  what 
might  be  called  the  workman's  scaffolding 
about  this  structure  of  anti-saloon  reform. 
The  foundation  had  been  well  laid,  but  the 
building  of  the  superstructure  was  compelled 
to  conform  to  the  slow  yet  only  sure  plan  of 
pressing  the  work  of  saloon  suppression  by  the 
crystallization  and  proper  application  of  public 
sentiment.  Pages  of  literature,  by  the  million, 
were  accordingly  scattered  throughout  the 
land.  The  main  part  of  the  revenues  of  the 
League  was  expended  in  printer's  ink,  stere- 
opticon  lectures,  and  in  general  agitation  meet- 
ings in  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  several 
states.  The  public  sentiment  aroused  in  this 
way  and  directed  according  to  League  methods 
began  to  tell  in  the  changing  attitude  of  mem- 
bers of  state  legislatures,  town  councils,  and  in 
the  activity  of  state  and  municipal  executives, 
as  well  as  that  of  other  officers  of  the  law. 

57 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Early  in  1900,  Minnesota  passed  a  splendid 
search  and  seizure  law,  which  was  the  first 
temperance  legislation  enacted  in  that  state 
for  several  years.  In  Ohio,  the  Clark  Local 
Option  Bill,  providing  for  local  option  on  the 
liquor  question  in  incorporated  villages  and 
cities,  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  by 
a  majority  of  a  few  votes,  the  total  vote  being 
fifty-nine.  This  measure,  however,  was  lost  in 
the  Senate  by  the  narrow  margin  of  fifteen  to 
sixteen.  The  League's  fight  on  the  Governor 
of  Arkansas,  who  had  placed  himself  in  a  light 
favorable  to  the  liquor  interests,  was  success- 
ful to  the  extent  of  reducing  his  majority  by 
20,000  votes.  The  same  kind  of  fig^ht  ae:ainst 
the  re-election  of  the  Governor  of  Nebraska, 
for  similar  reason,  reduced  his  majority  so 
greatly  that  he  was  re-elected  only  by  the  nar- 
row margin  of  800  votes,  while  the  rest  of  his 
ticket  won  by  approximately  8,000  majority. 
In  a  number  of  other  states,  moreover,  the  po- 
litical strength  of  the  League  began  to  show 
itself  in  various  ways.  During  this  same  year, 
twelve  additional  Iowa  counties  abolished  the 
saloons;  seventy-five  Nebraska  villages  voted 
dry.  Queen  Anne's  county,  Maryland,  joined 
the  no-license  ranks,  and  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, largely  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  A. 

58 


HISTORY   OF   THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

E.  Shoemaker,  the  attorney  for  the  District 
League,  succeeded  in  reducing  the  number  of 
licenses  for  the  sale  of  liquor  to  641,  which 
number  was  less  by  359  than  the  number  in 
operation  in  the  District  in  1892,  one  year  be- 
fore the  Anti-Saloon  League  was  born. 

Up  to  this  time  not  much  had  been  done  in 
the  way  of  efforts  to  secure  legislation  in  Con- 
gress. The  Anti-Saloon  League  had  a  Nation- 
al Legislative  Committee  which  had  succeeded 
in  doing  good  work  in  a  small  way,  but  the 
necessity  for  work  along  national  legislative 
4ines  became  so  imperative  that,  as  a  result  of 
action  taken  at  the  Fourth  National  Conven- 
tion of  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  held  in  Cleve- 
land in  December  of  1898,  legislative  head- 
quarters were  opened  at  Washington  and  the 
office  of  Legislative  Superintendent  was  creat- 
ed. This  office  was  filled  in  1899  by  the  elec- 
tion of  Rev.  Edwin  C.  Dinwiddie,  and  special 
efforts  looking  toward  favorable  temperance 
legislation  by  Congress  were  inaugurated. 

The  first  crying  need  for  remedial  legisla- 
tion, from  a  Federal  standpoint,  grew  out  of 
conditions  at  the  army  posts;  and  the*  first 
fight  made  by  the  newly-organized  Legislative 
Department  of  the  League  was  to  secure  the 
passage  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  the 

59 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

Canteen  Law,  prohibiting  the  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquors  at  army  posts.  The  strong  resolu- 
tion adopted  by  the  convention  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  America  which  was  held  in 
Chicago  in  May  of  1900  constituted  the  plat- 
form upon  which  the  fight  for  the  canteen  law 
was  made. 

As  a  result  of  the  organized  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  League  forces,  assisted  by  other 
temperance  organizations  throughout  the 
country,  the  Anti-Canteen  Law  was  passed  by 
Congress  on  January  9,  1901.  Among  other 
victories  of  this  same  year  may  be  mentioned 
the  passage  of  a  law  in  Iowa  prohibiting  the 
soliciting  of  liquor  orders  in  dry  territory,  and 
the  successful  fight  for  the  election  of  a  strong 
temperance  man  to  the  Supreme  Bench  of  Ne- 
braska by  the  sweeping  majority  of  12,000 
votes,  which  was  effected  in  spite  of  all  the 
efforts  of  the  liquor  forces  to  the  contrary. 

These  specific  victories,  while  they  were 
not  of  large  proportions,  were  nevertheless 
most  significant  in  their  bearing  on  the  gen- 
eral movement,  and  especially  in  their  dem- 
onstration of  the  possibilities  of  the  League 
when  backed  by  the  united  support  of  the 
church  forces  in  the  local  communities  and  in 
the  states  at  large. 

60 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

From  the  beginning  it  was  evident  that 
the  League  presented  the  only  possible  ma- 
chinery for  securing  tangible  results  in  the 
fight  against  the  liquor  traffic,  through  the 
unification  of  temperance  forces  represented 
in  the  different  church  denominations.  It  was 
also  evident  from  the  very  inception  of  the 
movement  that  the  League  machinery,  unique 
and  potentially  powerful  as  it  was,  would  prove 
to  be  worthless  without  the  co-operation  and 
support  of  the  church  forces,  regardless  of  de- 
nomination, so  absolutely  essential  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  case.  The  endeavor  to  win  the 
church,  therefore,  was  by  all  odds  the  most  im- 
portant and  vital  of  all  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  management  during 
the  years  of  its  struggle  for  existence. 

The  movement  was  dependent  upon  the 
church,  first  of  all,  for  financial  support.  It 
was  also  dependent  upon  the  church  for  the 
necessary  influence  and  power  to  turn  the  tide 
along  non-partisan  lines  in  the  election  of 
members  of  the  legislatures  favorable  to  tem- 
perance legislation,  and  in  the  election,  as  well, 
of  public  officials  who  would  enforce  the  law. 
n'he  church  voter's  lists,  therefore,  constituted 
the  real  key  to  the  situation.-^  With  the  en- 
dorsement  and    co-operation  of  the  churches, 

6i 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  information  as  to  men  and  measures  sent 
to  the  Christian  voters  was  bound  to  receive 
attention  and  secure  results.  Without  the 
active  and  pronounced  co-operation  of  the 
churches,  such  information  was  bound  to  re- 
ceive but  Hmited  consideration. 

The  church  bodies,  consequently,  held  in 
their  hands  the  destiny  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League;  and  while  many  years  of  dif^cult  and 
persistent  endeavor^were  necessary  to  line  up 
the  church  on  the  right  side  of  this  new  move- 
ment, the  effort  from  year  to  year  was  in- 
creasingly successful  in  this  direction,  until  by 
1901  there  was  no  longer  a  question  on  the  part 
of  the  general  public  but  that  the  church  forces 
in  the  main  were  lined  up  back  of  the  League, 
and  that  the  League's  fight  was  in  reality  the 
fight  of  the  organized  church  forces  against 
the  organized  liquor  forces. 

The  result  of  this  condition  and  the  im- 
pression on  the  Christian  public  was  soon 
made  manifest  in  the  tangible  results  secured. 

During  the  year  1902,  victories  for  the  anti- 
saloon  forces  came  thick  and  fast.  A  number 
of  important  laws  were  written  on  the  statute 
books  of  the  several  states  The  Beal  Law,  pro- 
viding for  local  option  in  incorporated  villages 
and  cities,  was  passed    by    the    legislature  in 

62 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Ohio,  thus  furnishing  the  weapon  in  that  state 
which  was  later  used  in  cleaning  up  more  than 
300  incorporated  villages  and  small  cities. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  Kentucky  branch 
of  the  National  Anti-Saloon  League,  one  of 
the  most  stringent  law  enforcement  measures 
ever  enacted  was  written  on  the  statute  books 
of  the  Blue  Grass  State.  The  Maryland  leg- 
islature during  this  year  passed  twenty-eight 
different  local  temperance  laws,  while  Con- 
gress, seemingly  catching  the  spirit  of  temper- 
ance progress,  appropriated  $1,000,000  for  the 
erection  of  temperance  substitutes  for  the  can- 
teen at  army  posts. 

In  the  matter  of  actual  saloon  suppression, 
this  same  year  1902  witnessed  greater  results 
than  any  preceding  year  in  the  history  of  the 
League  movement.  Ninety-three  Ohio  mu- 
nicipalities voted  dry.  Forty-four  Maryland 
saloons  were  outlawed.  Of  the  seventy-five 
counties  in  Arkansas,  forty-four  abolished  the 
saloon,  thus  showing  an  increase  of  fifteen  dry 
victories  in  that  state  over  the  record  of  the 
election  in  1900.  In  California,  two-thirds  of 
Los  Angeles  county  voted  no-license,  as  did 
also  one-half  of  the  counties  of  San  Diego  and 
San  Bernardino. 

These  victories  in  Southern  California 
63 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

were  very  largely  the  result  of  the  efforts  of 
one  man,  Rev.  E.  S.  Chapman,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
who  has  been  in  charge  of  the  League  work  in 
Southern  California  since  1898.  When  Doctor 
Chapman  began  League  work  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  the  nine  counties  composing  the  South- 
ern part  of  the  state  of  California  were  almost 
completely  under  the  control  of  the  liquor 
traffic,  and  the  transformation  of  the  wet  and 
dry  map  of  that  section  in  a  few  years  has  been 
a  most  remarkable  achievement,  especially  in 
view  of  the  peculiar  conditions  in  California 
favorable  to  the  traffic. 

Doctor  Chapman's  work,  however,  has  not 
been  limited  to  those  few  counties,  although 
the  greater  part  of  his  time  as  a  League  repre- 
sentative has  been  given  to  that  section.  He 
was  for  a  time  superintendent  of  the  State 
Anti-Saloon  League  and,  as  well,  superintend- 
ent of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Oregon. 
His  most  important  national  work  was  the 
"Stainless  Flag"  tour  of  1907,  when  he  went 
from  Coast  to  Coast,  under  the  direction  of  the 
National  League,  delivering  his  lecture  on  "A 
Stainless  Flag,"  which  was  not  only  a  terrific 
arraignment  of  the  liquor  traffic,  but  a  most  re- 
markable legal  argument  to  the  effect  that  the 
Supreme    Court    of   the   United    States    must 

64 


HISTORY   OF   THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

eventually  declare  the  liquor  traffic  an  outlaw 
on  Constitutional  grounds.  This  address  has 
been  printed  and  circulated  by  the  millions  all 
over  the  United  States.  Doctor  Chapman  has 
made  several  other  valuable  contributions  to 
Anti-Saloon  League  literature,  among  them 
being  "Particeps  Criminis,"  "The  Czolgosz  of 
Trade  and  Commerce"  and  "An  Arraignment 
of  the  License  System.'^ 

During  the  year  1902,  moreover,  Missouri 
closed  forty-four  dramshops.  Texas  temper- 
ance sentiment  succeeded  in  carrying  forty- 
one  of  the  forty-eight  county  option  elections 
in  the  Lone  Star  State,  bringing  the  number  of 
no-license  counties  in  that  state  up  to  100. 
More  than  200  remonstrances  against  saloons 
in  the  state  of  Indiana  were  successful,  while 
the  New  York  temperance  forces  outlawed 
sixty  concert  hall  saloons  in  Buffalo  and,  un- 
der the  provisions  of  the  Raines  law,  added  100 
dry  townships  to  the  no-license  column. 

During  the  three  years  of  1900,  1901  and 
1902,  the  League  movement  continued  to  ex- 
pand, and  State  League  organizations  were 
effected  in  Texas,  Washington,  Virginia,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  in  the  Territory  of  Hawaii. 

The  significant  success  attending  the  work 
of  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  especiallv  during 

65 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

1902,  now  began  to  excite  the  liquor  interests, 
which  had  already  come  to  view  with  appre- 
hension this  increasingly  successful  temper- 
ance crusade.  The  liquor  press  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  nation  sounded  the 
note  of  alarm,  and  the  various  organizations  of 
the  brewers  and  liquor  dealers  throughout  the 
country  began  to  unite  in  common  cause  for 
mutual  protection. 

The  liquor  forces  at  length,  in  sheer  des- 
peration, made  a  concerted  attack  on  a  few  of 
the  weakest  places  in  the  temperance  lines. 
This  was  evidently  done  in  the  hope  that  a 
few  successful  raids  into  no-license  territory 
might  put  the  temperance  forces  on  the  de- 
fensive and  thus  turn  the  tide  of  battle.  As  a 
result  of  this  concerted  effort,  the  Prohibition 
Laws  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  were 
practically  repealed  by  the  adoption  of  local 
option  provisions. 

While  the  enemy  was  employed  in  these 
conflicts  in  New  England,  however,  the  fight- 
ing forces  of  the  League  were  also  busy  in 
other  parts  of  the  field  of  battle,  and  as  a  result 
of  these  efforts,  during  1903  Virginia  passed 
what  was  known  as  the  Mann  Law,  practically 
abolishing  saloons  in  the  rural  sections  of  the 
state;  while  North  Carolina  enacted  what  is 

66 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

known  as  the  Watts  Law,  limiting  the  sale  and 
manufacture  of  liquors  to  incorporated  mu- 
nicipalities and  giving  the  right  of  local  option 
to  all  municipalities  throughout  the  state. 

As  a  result  of  the  Mann  Law  in  Virginia, 
one-fourth  of  the  entire  number  of  saloons  in 
that  state  were  outlawed  during  the  first  year 
of  the  law's  operation.  In  addition,  eighteen 
of  the  twenty-four  towns  and  cities  voting  in 
the  Old  Dominion  State  went  dry.  In  this 
number  was  included  Danville,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  25,000.  In  North  Carolina,  under  the 
operation  of  the  Watts  Law,  twenty  of  the 
twenty-seven  municipal  elections  held  during 
the  year  were  carried  by  the  anti-saloon  forces, 
Raleigh,  the  capital  city,  being  one  of  the  mu- 
nicipalities voting  dry. 

During  1903,  moreover,  Tennessee  passed 
the  Adams  Law,  which  extended  the  four-mile 
provision  in  the  liquor  laws  of  that  state  to  all 
cities  of  5,000  or  less,  thus  prohibiting  saloons 
within  four  miles  of  a  school  house  in  all  sec- 
tions of  the  state,  with  the  exception  of  about 
fourteen  cities. 

Washington,  during  the  same  year,  enacted 
a  splendid  search  and  seizure  law  and  an  anti- 
gambling  measure.  Congress  appropriated  an 
additional  $500,000   for    army  canteen  substi- 

67 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

tiites.  The  number  of  no-license  towns  in  Con- 
necticut was  increased  by  five.  Ravalli  county, 
Montana,  voted  dry,  this  being  the  first  county 
in  the  entire  state  of  Montana  to  abolish  the 
saloons.  Fifty-seven  additional  villages  and 
cities  in  Ohio  voted  in  favor  of  no-license  under 
the  Beal  Law,  and  450  convictions  of  saloon 
violators  were  secured  in  the  same  state  during 
the  year. 

As  a  result  of  a  special  campaign  for  law 
enforcement  on  the  part  of  the  Maryland 
League,  430  cases  were  brought  against  dive- 
keepers  in  that  state  who  had  violated  the  pro- 
visions of  the  anti-liquor  laws,  most  of  which 
cases  resulted  in  convictions. 

A  similar  movement  in  Omaha,  Nebraska, 
resulted  in  the  debarring  of  women  and  music 
from  all  saloons  in  that  city,  while  numerous 
other  victories  in  the  way  of  additional  tem- 
perance legislation  and  law  enforcement  char- 
acterized the  Anti-Saloon  League  movement 
during  the  year. 

As  a  result  of  the  great  inroads  which  the 
temperance  forces  had  made  on  the  saloon 
during  this  eventful  year,  the  liquor  fraternity 
finally  awoke  to  the  fact  that  the  so-called 
temperance  wave,  which  had  been  ridiculed  by 
them  as  a  spasmodic  affair  and  which  they  had 

68 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

continually  prophesied  would  quickly  recede, 
showed  no  signs  of  recession.  In  fact,  the 
year  1903  closed  with  a  most  discouraging 
outlook  for  the  liquor  interests  and  with  the 
brightest  possible  promise  for  the  success  of 
this  comparatively  new  antagonist  of  the  sa- 
loon. 


69 


Chapter  III, 

The  League  Becomes  a 
Political  Power 


Not  in  dumb  resignation  we  life  our  bands  on  high ; 

Not  like  the  nerveless  fatalist,  content  to  do  and  die. 

Our  faith  springs,  like  the  eagle's  who  soars  to  meet  the  sun, 

And  cries  exulting  unto  Thee,  "Oh,  Lord,  thy  will  be  done." 

When  tyrant  feet  are  tramping  upon  the  common  weal. 
Thou  dost  not  bid  us  bend  and  writhe  beneath  the  iron  heel, 
In  thy  name  we  claim  our  right  by  sword  or  tongue  or  pen. 
And  even  the  headsman's  axe  may  flash  thy  message  unto  men. 

Thy  will;   It  bids  the  weak  be  strong;  it  bids  the  strong  be  just; 
No  lips  to  fawn,  no  hand  to  beg,  no  brow  to  seek  the  dust. 
Wherever  man  oppresses  man  beneath  the  liberal  sun. 
Oh ;  Lord,  be  there ;  Thine  arm  made  bare,  thy  righteous  will 
be  done. — JoJm  Hay. 


The  League  Becomes  a  Political  Power 


THE  history  of  the  first  decade  of  the 
Anti- Saloon  League  movement, 
from  its  inception  in  1893,  is  largely 
a  history  of  the  installation  of 
League  organizations  in  the  several  states  and 
the  creation  of  machinery  for  the  crystalliza- 
tion of  public  sentiment  into  the  enactment 
and  enforcement  of  law.  The  history  of  the 
second  decade  of  the  League's  existence  is 
largely  a  record  of  how  this  organization  gen- 
erated strength  which  gave  to  the  League 
movement  the  political  balance  of  power  in  a 
large  majority  of  the  states  and  in  the  Federal 
Congress. 

When  Dr.  Howard  H.  Russell,  who  was  the 
founder  of  the  Ohio  Anti-Saloon  League,  and 
who  furnished  the  human  shoulder  which  gave 
vitality  to  the  movement  in  the  pioneer  days, 
accepted  the  position  of  National  Superintend- 
ent at  the  inception  of  the  American  League, 
he  undertook  the  work  of  organizing  branch 
Leagues  in  all  the  states  of  the  Union,  and  of 
placing  the  movement  on  its  feet  as  an  active, 

73 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

fighting  force  representing  the  Christian  peo- 
ple of  all  churches. 

<By  1903  this  work  had  been  accomplished 
in  a  very  large  degree.  The  Anti-Saloon 
League  had  been  organized  in  forty  states  and 
territories.  It  had  come  to  be  recognized  as 
the  real  agency  through  which  the  church  was 
directing  its  fight  against  the  liquor  traffic, 
and  the  liquor  interests  had  begun  to  look  upon 
this  new  movement  with  apprehension  and 
alarm. 

With  this  accomplished,  therefore,  Doctor 
Russell  felt  that  the  work  which  he  had  es- 
pecially set  out  to  do  as  General  Superintend- 
ent of  the  League  had  been  done,  and,  on  ac- 
count of  personal  and  home  demands  which 
seemed  to  make  it  inoperative  that  he  give  his 
attention  and  time  to  the  work  in  New  York 
state,  presented  his  resignation  as  the  active 
leader  of  the  American  League  to  the  National 
Convention  which  met  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
in  December,  1903. 

When  Doctor  Russell's  resignation  was  ac- 
cepted there  were  almost  three  hundred  men 
directly  connected  with  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  in  the  several  states.  Any  one  of  a 
score  of  these  men,  from  the  standpoint  of 
knowledge    of    the    situation   and   of    League 

74 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

methods,  or  from  the  standpoint  of  consecra- 
tion and  devotion  to  the  cause,  or  from  the 
standpoint  of  abiHty  as  real  leaders,  would 
probably  have  made  a  successful  superintend- 
ent of  the  national  forces.  This  fact  simply 
made  it  all  the  more  remarkable  that  the  dele- 
gates in  attendance  upon  the  Eighth  National 
Convention  of  the  League  immediately,  w^ith 
one  mind,  turned  to  one  man  as  Doctor  Rus- 
sell's successor. 

^hat  man  v^^as  Dr.  P.  A.  Baker,  then  the 
superintendent  of  the  Ohio  Anti-Saloon 
League,  v^ho  w^as  unanimously  chosen  Gen- 
eral Superintendent,  and  who  soon  after- 
wards, as  leader  of  the  forces,  entered  upon 
the  work  of  the  second  decade  of  the  League's 
existence,  which  was  to  mean  so  much  in  the 
way  of  securing  for  the  Christian  moral  forces 
of  the  nation  the  balance  of  political  power  in 
the  fight  against  the  liquor  traffic. 

Just  so  sure  as  Howard  H.  Russell  was  the 
founder  of  the  present  Anti-Saloon  League 
movement  and  the  leading  spirit  in  its  early 
days,  so  sure  is  it  also  that  of  all  the  hundreds 
of  men  who  have  done  service  for  the  move- 
ment since  its  birth,  the  one  man  whose  leader- 
ship has  been  most  largely  responsible  for 
making  the  League  a  real  national  political 

75 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

power  for  civic  righteousness  is  Purley  A. 
Baker,  D.  D.,  who,  since  1903,  has  been  the 
League's  chief  executive  officer. 

The  qualifications  and  characteristics  of 
Purley  A.  Baker  which  are  especially  respon- 
sible for  making  him  the  general  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  hosts  throughout  the  nation 
(luring  the  second  decade  of  the  League's  ex- 
istence, may  be  summarized  as  follows.  L  Born 
of  a  mother  whose  exceptional  strength  of  mind 
and  heart  made  her  the  towering  figure  of  a 
larec  familv  of  which  she  was  the  maternal 
head,  and  who  in  a  special  way  transferred  to 
her  son,  among  other  qualities,  the  courage  to 
undergo  hardships  as  a  real  soldier  and  to  meet 
emergencies  as  one  always  in  command  of  the 
situation.  2.  An  indomitable  iron  will,  of  the 
kind  which  never  knows  defeat  and  which  op- 
position and  reverses  merely  serve  to  strength- 
en. 3.  An  education  of  the  "Simon-pure,"  self- 
made  brand,  especially  remarkable  in  view  of 
the  lack  of  what  might  be  called  opportunity 
in  his  early  life.  4.  An  almost  revengeful 
hatred  of  the  liquor  traffic,  born  of  the  hard- 
ships which  indirectly  the  traffic  had  worked 
on  him  in  his  early  life,  and  whetted  to  even  a 
keener  edge  by  the  blighting  influence  which 
it  had  brought  into  the  homes  of  most  of  the 

76 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

best  friends  of  his  boyhood  days.  5.  An  inborn 
sympathy  for  the  under  dog.  6.  A  dogmatic 
and  consecrated  prejudice  against  organized 
wrong,  which  prejudice  at  the  same  time  was 
linked  with  a  sense  of  justice  of  rare  variety. 
7.  A  pastor  of  both  city  and  country  churches, 
in  the  most  of  which  he  was  engaged  in  a 
direct  fight  against  the  liquor  traffic.  8.  A 
wife  of  economic  training  and  tendencies, 
gifted  with  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  service, 
and  herself  a  most  bitter  foe  of  the  liquor 
traffic  because  of  its  blighting  influence  among 
her  own  close  relatives  and  friends.  9.  A  per- 
sonality of  the  type  which  commands  respect, 
making  both  strong  friends  and  bitter  enemies. 
10.  An  executive  ability,  the  best  evidence  of 
which  is  the  present  organized  system  repre- 
sented in  the  Anti-Saloon  League. 

As  Howard  H.  Russell  must  be  given  the 
special  credit  for  bringing  the  League  into  ex- 
istence at  an  opportune  time,  so  also  must 
Purley  A.  Baker  be  given  the  credit  for  per- 
fecting that  organization  and  directing  its 
activities  during  the  most  crucial  period  of  its 
existence. 

Whatever  the  future  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  may  be,  when  that  record  shall  be  com- 
plete no  one  will  be  able  to  claim  a  larger  place 

17 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

in  the  development  and  control  of  the  move- 
ment than  that  which  must  needs  be  given  to 
Purley  A.  Baker. 

During  the  year  following  Doctor  Baker's 
election  to  the  superintendency,  the  Kentucky 
Local  Option  League  was  merged  into  the 
Anti-Saloon  League,  and  organizations  were 
efifected  in  Idaho,  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Terri- 
tory. 

This  same  year  also  witnessed  the  adoption 
of  the  first  local  option  law  ever  enacted  in  the 
United  States  without  the  action  of  a  legisla- 
tive body.  This  occurred  in  the  state  of  Ore- 
gon, where,  under  an  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution providing  for  the  initiative,  the  peo- 
ple enacted  a  municipal,  precinct,  ward  and 
county  local  option  measure  by  the  significant 
majority  of  1,318. 

This  year  also  marked  the  first  decisive 
victory  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  in  the  state 
of  Illinois,  in  the  election  to  the  legislature  of 
three  candidates  who  ran  on  the  third  party 
Prohibition  ticket.  One  of  these  successful 
candidates  was  from  the  district  of  Peoria,  the 
world's  great  whisky  center.  All  were  elected 
through  the  united  efforts  of  anti-saloon  voters 
regardless  of  party  lines. 

This  result  was  secured  under  the  general- 
78 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ship  of  Mr.  William  H.  Anderson,  who  at  that 
time  was  superintendent  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  Illinois.  Mr.  Anderson's  work  in 
leading  the  temperance  forces  of  Hlinois,  not 
only  in  that  campaign,  but  during  the  entire 
five  years  when  he  was  at  the  head  of  the 
movement  in  that  state,  brought  him  into 
prominence  as  one  of  the  national  leaders  of 
the  League.  In  fact,  he  is  the  author  of  "The 
Church  in  Action  Against  the  Saloon,"  which 
is  recognized  everywhere  as  the  "Blue  Book" 
of  the  Anti-Saloon  League.  Mr.  Anderson, 
for  one  year  as  associate  superintendent  of 
the  League  in  New  York  and  for  the  last  six 
years  as  superintendent  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  Maryland,  has  been  an  important 
factor  in  shaping  the  policies  of  the  movement 
during  the  second  decade  of  the  League's  his- 
tory. During  most  of  that  period  he  has  been 
a  member  of  the  National  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  League,  and  during  one  year,  while 
continuing  his  work  as  superintendent  of  the 
Maryland  organization,  he  represented  the 
National  League  at  Washington  in  the  inter- 
est of  Federal  legislation. 

In  Virginia,  during  the  year,  the  number  of 
saloons  was  reduced  by  230,  leaving  only  1,106 
such  establishments  in  the  entire  state. 

79 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

In  Ohio,  the  Brannock  Residence  District 
Local  Option  Bill,  which  had  passed  both 
houses  of  the  legislature  by  a  good  majority, 
and  to  which  a  few  minor  amendments  had 
been  attached  in  the  Senate,  was  thrown  into 
a  conference  committee,  and,  under  threat  of 
executive  veto  by  Governor  Myron  T.  Herrick, 
then  the  chief  executive  of  the  state,  the  meas- 
ure was  amended  to  the  point  where  it  was  ab- 
solutely worthless. 

Up  to  this  time,  victories  gained  by  the 
League,  although  numerous  and  significant, 
were  largely  incidental  to  the  main  work  of 
perfecting  the  League  organization.  Many 
conquests  had  already  been  won  and  thousands 
of  saloons  had  been  compelled  to  close  their 
doors;  but  the  greatest  achievement  of  the 
League  had  consisted  in  demonstrating  that 
the  proper  application  of  crystallized  public 
sentiment,  regardless  of  party  affiliations  and 
church  denominations,  would  bring  results  in 
the  fight  against  the  saloon.  The  year  1905, 
therefore,  may  well  be  termed  "a  red  letter 
year,"  for  it  unquestionably  marked  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  temperance  reform  in  the 
United  States. 

The  great  fight  of  the  year  took  place  on 
the   Ohio  battleground.      The   killing   of   the 

80 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

Residence  District  Local  Option  Bill  in  the 
legislature  of  1904  at  the  instigation  of  Gov- 
ernor Myron  T.  Herrick  was  not  to  be  easily 
forgotten  by  the  Christian  people  of  the  state. 
Protests  by  the  thousands  poured  in  upon  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party  against  the 
Governor's  renomination.  The  George  B.  Cox 
machine,  of  Cincinnati,  however,  finally  came 
to  the  rescue  and,  defying  all  protests,  forced 
Mr.  Herrick  upon  the  voters  of  the  Republican 
party  as  their  candidate  for  Governor. 

The  Democratic  party,  on  the  other  hand, 
wise  enough  to  take  advantage  of  the  situa- 
tion, nominated  for  Governor  in  opposition  to 
Mr.  Herrick  the  Honorable  John  M.  Pattison, 
of  Cincinnati,  president  of  the  Union  Central 
Life  Insurance  Company,  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential and  substantial  supporters  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League,  and  a  genuine  Christian 
gentleman. 

Never  before,  perhaps,  in  any  state,  were 
the  issues  so  clearly  defined  between  the  sa- 
loons on  one  hand  and  the  churches  on  the 
other  as  in  this  campaign  of  1905  in  the  state 
of  Ohio.  The  church  people  stood  as  a  body 
against  Mr.  Herrick  and  for  the  election  of  Mr. 
Pattison,  while  the  liquor  interests  and  their 

81 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

auxiliaries  stood  practically  to  a  man  for  the 
Republican  candidate. 

The  leader  of  the  church  and  temperance 
forces  in  this  greatest  political  fight  which  up 
to  that  time  the  League  had  undertaken,  was 
Mr.  Wayne  B.  Wheeler,  superintendent  of  the 
Ohio  department  of  the  League  work,  having 
been  elected  to  the  superintendency  of  the 
State  League  when  Doctor  Baker  resigned  to 
accept  the  superintendency  of  the  national 
movement. 

Mr.  Wheeler  was  by  no  means  a  novice  in 
Anti-Saloon  League  work.  In  fact,  he  was 
one  of  the  first  four  men  to  be  called  into  active 
service  by  Doctor  Russell.  When  the  Ohio 
League  was  organized  at  Oberlin,  Mr.  Wheeler 
was  a  student  in  Oberlin  College,  and  from 
the  beginning  was  interested  in  the  movement. 
After  completing  his  college  course,  he  attend- 
ed law  school  in  Cleveland,  during  which  time 
he  gave  his  Sundays  to  the  League  work. 
After  Mr.  Wheeler  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
he  was  employed  as  the  attorney  for  the  Ohio 
League,  and  for  several  years  took  charge  of 
the  district  office  in  Cleveland.  He  has  been 
a  member  of  the  National  League  Executive 
Committee  for  ten  years,  and  for  several  years 
the  attorney  for  the  national  organization.    He 

82 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

was  especially  equipped  to  lead  this  fight 
against  Governor  Herrick,  having  for  years, 
even  before  his  superintendency  of  the  State 
League,  had  charge  of  the  Legislative  De- 
partment of  the  League  work  at  Columbus. 

Governor  Herrick  had  been  elected  for  his 
first  term  by  a  majority  of  approximately  113,- 
000.  The  Republican  party,  under  Roosevelt, 
had  carried  the  state  in  1904  by  a  majority  of 
more  than  255,000.  The  contest,  therefore, 
seemed  decidedly  uneven ;  but  when  the  elec- 
tion was  over  and  the  ballots  were  finally 
counted,  it  was  found  that  while  the  candidates 
of  the  Republican  state  ticket  had  been  elected 
by  the  normal  majority,  there  was  one  excep- 
tion. That  exception  was  Governor  Herrick, 
who  went  down  to  defeat  before  an  avalanche 
of  Christian  protests,  which  buried  him  under 
a  majority  44,000  strong. 

While  the  defeat  of  Governor  Herrick  was 
unquestionably  the  most  important  and  sig- 
nificant victory  of  the  year,  it  was  by  no  means 
the  only  victory  which  the  anti-saloon  forces 
secured.  In  New  York  state,  during  this  year, 
six  anti-liquor  laws  were  passed  by  the  legis- 
lature as  a  result  of  the  League's  efforts,  limit- 
ing the  evils  of  the  saloon  in  various  ways,  and 
doing  away  with  many  of  the  vicious  features 

83 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

of  the  so-called  Raines  Hotel  Law  and  the 
Druggists'  Act. 

In  Wisconsin,  three  additions  were  made 
to  the  no-license  laws  of  the  state  providing  for 
the  better  enforcement  of  existing  laws. 
Prompted  by  the  better  opportunity  for  law 
enforcement  offered  by  these  new  statutes, 
forty-two  cities  and  villages  in  Wisconsin  be- 
gan in  a  special  way  the  work  of  enforcing  the 
various  provisions  in  the  state  statutes  against 
the  saloons. 

The  Moore  amendment  to  the  Nicholson 
Law  of  Indiana  was  also  adopted  during  1905. 
This  amendment  made  remonstrances  against 
the  existence  of  saloons  applicable  to  all  re- 
quests for  licenses  in  any  township  where  the 
remonstrance  might  be  used,  and  provided 
that  such  remonstrances  should  stand  for  two 
years  before  another  effort  along  the  same  line 
should  become  necessary.  Under  this  amend- 
ed law,  seventy-four  Indiana  townships  abol- 
ished the  saloons  during  the  year. 

In  North  Carolina  an  amendment  to  the 
Watts  Law  was  passed  by  the  legislature,  the 
effect  of  which  was  to  prohibit  the  manufac- 
ture and  sale  of  liquors  outside  of  villages 
having  a  population  of  500  or  more.  As  a 
result    of    this    legislation,  the  number  of  no- 

84 


HISTORY   OF   THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

license  municipalities  in  North  Carolina  was 
promptly  increased  by  four. 

Five  counties  in  Oregon  abolished  the  sa- 
loons under  the  provisions  of  the  County  Local 
Option  Law.  The  Virginia  temperance  forces 
voted  lOO  additional  retail  liquor  establish- 
ments out  of  business.  One  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  injunctions  against  liquor  vendors  were 
secured  in  the  state  of  Iowa;  while  in  the  same 
state  ninety-one  liquor  selling'  permits  were 
taken  from  Iowa  druggists  who  had  been 
found  guilty  of  violating  the  laws.  In  Min- 
nesota 163  convictions  of  law  violating  saloon- 
keepers were  secured,  and  the  Sunday  saloon 
in  the  city  of  Minneapolis  became  a  thing  of 
the  past  by  virtue  of  the  strict  law  enforcement 
policy  adopted  by  Mayor  Jones.  Nebraska, 
moreover,  witnessed  a  decrease  of  114  in  the 
number  of  retail  liquor  establishments 
throughout  the  state,  and  the  Sunday  closing 
law  was  put  into  operation  in  all  sections  of 
that  commonwealth. 

The  magnificent  victory  secured  by  the 
League  in  the  fight  against  Governor  Herrick 
in  Ohio  gave  fresh  courage  to  the  League 
forces  in  practically  every  state.  The  results 
of  the  Ohio  campaign  had  fully  demonstrated 
the   fact   that   the   Christian   voters,   who   on 

&5 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

principle  are  opposed  to  the  liquor  traffic,  hold 
the  balance  of  power;  and  students  of  the  situ- 
ation everywhere  soon  came  to  a  full  realiza- 
tion of  the  dynamic  power  for  civic  righteous- 
ness wrapped  up  in  the  omni-partisan,  inter- 
denominational, Christian  citizenship  move- 
ment represented  in  the  Anti-Saloon  League. 
As  a  result,  during  1906  victories  by  the  score 
were  achieved  in  every  section  of  the  country, 
north,  south,  east  and  west. 

In  Indiana,  the  number  of  successful  re- 
monstrances under  the  Moore  Township  Law 
was  increased  by  186,  thus  making  a  total  01 
661  townships  of  that  state  free  from  the  sa- 
loon. The  temperance  forces  in  Iowa  secured 
the  passage  of  what  was  known  as  the  Time 
Limit  Bill,  practically  making  the  entire  state 
Prohibition  territory  at  the  expiration  of  all 
Mulct  saloon  licenses  unless  such  licenses 
should  be  renewed  by  a  majority  vote  of  the 
people. 

In  Georgia,  the  local  option  privilege  was 
extended  to  all  counties  where  dispensaries 
had  been  installed,  thus  giving  the  people  of 
that  state  for  the  first  time  a  direct  voice  on  the 
dispensary  question.  Under  this  provision, 
five  additional  counties  in  Georgia  promptly 
voted  dry  and  sixty  saloons  were  outlawed, 

86 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

leaving  a  total  of  800  in  the  state.  Ten  coun- 
ties in  the  state  of  Arkansas  were  added  to  the 
no-license  column  during  the  year,  and  the  net 
majority  recorded  against  license  in  the  elec- 
tions held  in  all  the  counties  of  the  state  was 
15,618.  This  was  an  increase  of  13,665  over 
the  record  of  1904. 

In  1906,  moreover,  a  County  Unit  Option 
Law  was  passed  by  the  legislature  of  Ken- 
tucky. This  law  provided  for  a  vote  on  the 
liquor  question  in  the  county  as  a  unit,  ex- 
empting only  cities  with  a  population  of  3,000 
or  more.  As  a  result  of  the  operation  of  this 
law,  fourteen  counties  were  added  to  the  no- 
license  list  in  that  state  almost  immediately 
after  its  passage,  thereby  abolishing  more  than 
a  hundred  saloons.  The  Governor  of  Ken- 
tucky also  ordered  the  closing  of  saloons  on 
Sunday  in  Louisville. 

In  Louisiana,  the  year  was  marked  by  the 
passage  of  two  additional  temperance  laws — 
one  prohibiting  the  soliciting  or  receiving  of 
liquor  orders  in  dry  territory,  and  the  other 
forbidding  minors  to  enter  saloons.  In  Mary- 
land, thirty-two  local  temperance  measures 
were  enacted  by  the  legislature.  In  New 
Hampshire,  six  of  the  eleven  cities  of  the  state 
voted  dry,  leaving  only  five  cities  and  forty- 

87 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

one  towns  under  license.  Assistant  Attorney 
General  Trickett  brought  about  a  revolution 
in  law  enforcement  in  Kansas,  and  the  joints 
and  dives  of  Kansas  City,  which  for  long 
years  had  been  openly  defying  the  state  pro- 
hibitory law,  were  closed. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  battles  of  the 
year  was  the  one  carried  on  in  the  state  of 
Maine  for  the  election  of  a  governor  favorable 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  prohibitory  law  and 
the  defeat  of  the  effort  then  being  made  to 
resubmit  the  Prohibition  question  to  a  vote  of 
the  people.  The  National  League  placed 
twelve  of  its  strongest  men  in  Maine  for  the 
campaign.  After  a  hard-fought  battle,  Gov- 
ernor William  T.  Cobb  was  re-elected,  and  the 
Prohibition  Law  was  saved. 

In  Ohio,  during  this  year  of  activity,  the 
Jones  Residence  District  Remonstrance  Law 
and  the  Search  and  Seizure  Law  were  passed 
by  the  legislature.  Townships,  municipalities 
and  residence  districts  of  cities  continued  to 
adopt  the  dry  policy  in  constantly  increasing 
numbers,  while  in  Columbus  and  several  other 
cities  of  the  state  the  saloons  were  compelled 
to  close  their  doors  on  Sunday. 

The  annual  reports  from  the  state  of  Okla- 
homa showed  a  reduction  of  128  in  the  num- 

88 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ber  of  saloons  operating  during  the  year. 
More  than  i,ooo  law  enforcement  cases  were 
conducted  under  the  direction  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  Pennsylvania  during  the 
same  twelve  months.  One  county,  three  cities 
and  several  towns  were  won  by  the  temperance 
forces  in  the  local  option  elections  held  in  the 
state  of  California,  and,  as  a  result,  thirty-six 
saloons  and  three  wholesale  liquor  houses 
were  put  put  of  business  in  that  state. 

The  number  of  dry  municipalities  in  Vir- 
ginia, during  this  year,  was  increased  by  six, 
thus  leaving  only  thirty-seven  villages  and 
cities  in  the  Old  Dominion  where  saloons  were 
permitted  to  operate.  In  Washington,  the 
Sunday  and  Midnight  Closing  Laws  were  re- 
vived, and  during  the  year  were  strictly  en- 
forced in  such  cities  as  Seattle,  Tacoma  and 
Walla  Walla,  as  well  as  the  smaller  cities  and 
villages  of  the  state. 

By  this  time,  the  sentiment  crystallized  in 
the  several  states  had  already  begun  to  tell  in 
the  election  of  congressmen  and  United  States 
senators,  and  the  Federal  legislature  became 
more  responsive  to  the  appeals  of  the  temper- 
ance people  throughout  the  country  than  ever 
before.  Recognizing  the  public  demand  for 
advanced  legislation  along   temperance    lines, 

89 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Congress  enacted  a  law  appropriating  an  addi- 
tional $350,(X>o  for  substitutes  of  liquor  saloons 
in  the  army  canteens.  A  provision  in  the 
Oklahoma  Statehood  Bill  was  also  secured 
which  required  the  Prohibition  of  the  liquor 
traffic  in  Indian  Territory  and  on  all  Indian 
reservations  in  that  state  for  a  period  of 
twenty-one  years  and  thereafter  until  the  peo- 
ple themselves  should  change  the  organic  law, 
thus  insuring  that  for  at  least  twenty-one 
years  Prohibition  could  not  be  interfered  with, 
even  by  a  vote  of  the  people,  in  the  new  state 
of  Oklahoma,  so  far  as  the  Indian  Territory 
section  was  concerned.  Twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  was  also  appropriated  for  the  better 
enforcement  of  the  law  against  selling  liquor 
to  Indians  or  on  Indian  reservations. 

An  amendment  to  the  Sundry  Civil  Appro- 
priations Bill,  practically  prohibiting  liquor 
selling  in  the  National  Soldiers'  Homes,  and 
the  Humphreys-Gallinger  Bill,  providing  that 
United  States  Internal  Revenue  Collectors 
should  furnish  certified  lists  of  persons  paying 
the  United  States  Internal  Revenue  Tax  as 
retail  liquor  dealers,  were  also  secured  as  a 
part  of  the  year's  work  for  temperance  reform 
in  Congress. 

With  all  the  splendid  results,  however, 
90 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

which  had  been  secured  up  to  this  time,  includ- 
ing the  thousands  of  municipahties  that  had 
abohshed  the  saloons,  the  numerous  town- 
ships, counties  and  residence  districts  of  cities 
that  had  adopted  the  no-license  policy,  as  well 
as  the  large  number  of  anti-liquor  laws  written 
upon  the  statute  books  of  the  several  states — 
these  tangible  victories  in  reality  constituted 
only  a  small  part  of  the  results  thus  far  achiev- 
ed through  the  agency  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  and  the  operation  of  the  anti-saloon 
plan  of  saloon  suppression  throughout  the 
country. 

The  greatest  achievement  by  far  which  up 
to  1907  had  been  registered  in  favor  of  the 
temperance  forces  was  to  be  found  in  the 
strength  of  the  organization  of  the  Anti-Sa- 
loon League  which  had  been  developed  during 
these  years  of  active  political  work.  The 
leaders  of  political  parties  in  practically  every 
state  had  come  to  know  by  experience  that  to 
nominate  men  favorable  to  the  liquor  interests 
in  communities  where  the  majority  of  the 
people  were  favorable  to  the  no-license  policy 
was  suicidal  from  the  party  standpoint. 

In  many  sections,  indeed,  party  leaders  had 
come  to  understand  that  before  they  could 
launch  the  candidacy  of  any  man  for  a  legisla- 

91 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

tive  office  with  any  assurance  of  success,  they 
must  needs  first  make  sure  that  his  candidacy 
would  not  arouse  the  active  opposition  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League.  The  thousands  of  po- 
litical graves  which  were  to  be  found  in  almost 
every  state  of  the  Union,  due  to  the  active 
work  of  the  League,  had  come  to  be  a  constant 
and  wholesome  reminder  to  the  political  lead- 
ers everywhere  that  this  new  movement,  back- 
ed by  the  Christian  citizenship  in  the  counties, 
cities  and  villages  of  the  several  states,  had 
come  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  wherever 
temperance  issues  were  involved  in  political 
campaigns. 

During  this  same  period,  while  the  League 
was  developing  political  strength,  it  by  no 
means  neglected  the  moral  suasion  wing  of  the 
reform.  A  special  Moral  Suasion  Department 
of  the  League  work  was  organized  at  the  very 
beginning  of  this  second  decade  of  the 
League's  existence.  This  department,  first 
founded  as  "The  Lincoln  Legion"  and  later  re- 
christened  "The  Lincoln-Lee  Legion,"  was 
organized  at  Oberlin,  Ohio,  at  the  Tenth  An- 
niversary of  the  Anti-Saloon  League's  birth. 

The  manner  in  which  this  department  came 
to  be  known  as  the  Lincoln-Lee  Legion  is  of 
interest.     Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  young  man 

92 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

was  not  only  a  total  abstainer,  but  a  great  ad- 
vocate of  temperance  reform.  His  notable 
temperance  speech,  made  at  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, on  Washington's  Birthday,  1842,  is  but 
one  of  many  temperance  addresses  he  made  in 
various  places  throughout  the  state  of  Illinois. 
In  1846  at  the  South  Fork  Schoolhouse  in 
Sangamon  county,  Illinois,  Abraham  Lincoln 
made  a  temperance  address  and  appealed  to 
his  hearers,  both  old  and  young,  to  sign  the 
pledge  which  he  had  written  and  to  which  he 
had  placed  his  own  signature.  The  wording 
of  this  pledge  is  as  follows :  "Whereas,  the  use 
of  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  beverage  is  pro- 
ductive of  pauperism,  degradation  and  crime, 
and  believing  it  is  our  duty  to  discourage  that 
which  produces  more  evil  than  good,  we  there- 
fore pledge  ourselves  to  abstain  from  the  use 
of  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  beverage."' 

Doctor  Howard  H.  Russell  discovered  this 
pledge  at  Springfield, Illinois, in  I902,and  found 
still  living  in  Sangamon  county  some  of  the 
original  signers,  whose  signatures  were  secured 
by  Lincoln  at  the  South  Fork  Schoolhouse 
meeting.  When  the  Tenth  Anniversary  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  was  held  at  Oberlin  in 
1903,  Cleopas  Breckenridge  and  Moses  Martin, 
two  of  the  original  signers  of  this  pledge,  came 

93 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

to  Uberlin  at  the  request  of  Doctor  Russell 
and  enrolled  themselves  as  the  first  two  sign- 
ers of  the  pledge  under  the  Lincoln  Legion. 
Fifteen  hundred  more  signatures  were  secured 
on  the  same  day  at  Oberlin.  Before  191 1  al- 
most 500,000  pledge-signers  had  been  enrolled 
in  the  Lincoln  Legion.  On  Sunday,  February, 
12,  191 1,  in  the  special  Lincoln  Pledge  Ser- 
vices held  in  the  Sunday  schools  throughout 
the  country,  more  than  280,000  additional 
pledges  were  signed  in  a  single  day.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1912,  another  special  pledge-signing 
day  was  observed,  with  the  result  that  the  total 
membership  in  the  Lincoln  Legion  passed  the 
raillion  mark.  During  the  same  year  the 
Lincoln  Legion  Patriots,  composed  of  boys 
and  girls  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
organized  as  a  part  of  the  Lincoln  Legion,  in- 
creased by  several  thousand  the  number  of 
L.incoln  pledge  signers. 

'While  Abraham  Lincoln  was  himself  a 
total  abstainer  and  used  his  influence  and  ef- 
forts in  behalf  of  total  abstinence  in  the  Union 
ranks  during  the  War  of  the  Sixties,  General 
Robert  E.  Lee  was  likewise  a  total  abstainer 
and  was  at  the  same  time  exerting  his  influence 
in  behalf  of  temperance  among  the  Confed- 
erate   soldiers.      Recognizing,    therefore,    the 

94 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

leadership  of  these  two  great  men  in  temper- 
ance reform,  as  well  as  their  leadership  in  the 
two  sections  of  the  nation  during  the  War  of 
the  Sixties,  the  Lincoln  Legion  in  1913  was  re- 
christened  the  Lincoln-Lee  Legion,  and  during 
the  first  year  under  this  name,  through  the 
leadership  of  Doctor  Howard  H.  Russell,  the 
general  secretary,  and  Rev  Milo  G.  Kelser,  the 
assistant  general  secretary,  pledge  signers 
were  added  by  thousands  and  literature  by  the 
millions  of  pages  was  distributed  through  this 
agency  in  all  sections  of  the  country.) 


95 


Chapter  IV. 

A  Tidal  Wave  of  Temperance 
Reform 


On  the  far  reef  the  breakers 

Recoil  in  shattered   foam, 
While  still  the  sea  behind  them 

Urges  its  forces  home ; 
Its  song  of  triumph  surges 

O'er  all  the  thunedrous  din, 
The  wave  may  break  in  failure, 

But  the  tide  is  sure  to  win. 

The  reef  is  strong  and  cruel 

Upon  its  jagged  wall 
One  wave,  a  score,  a  hundred 

Broken  and  beaten  fall  ; 
Yet  in  defeat  they  conquer, 

The  sea  comes  flooding  in. 
Wave  upon  wave  is  routed, 

But  the  tide  is  sure  to  win. 

O  mighty  sea !    thy  message 

In  clanging  spray  is  cast. 
Within  God's  plan  of  progress 

It  matters  not  at  last 
How  wide  the  shores  of  evil, 

How  strong  the  reefs  of  sin, 
The  waves  may  be  defeated, 

But  the  tide  is  sure  to  win ! 

— The  Outlook. 


A  Tidal  Wave  of  Temperance  Reform 


WHEN  victories  of  such  large  pro- 
portions began  to  be  registered 
in  favor  of  the  temperance  forces 
during  the  anti-liquor  campaigns 
of  ,1902,  the  liquor  interests,  through  their 
various  journals  and  periodicals,  began  to  ex- 
plain to  the  public  that  these  so-called  anti- 
saloon  advocates  constituted  but  a  temporary 
wave  of  temperance  reform — a  spasm  of  fanat- 
icism— which  would  speedily  abate.  The  same 
cry  went  up  again  in  1906,  and  the  public  was 
repeatedly  informed,  through  these  same  pro- 
liquor  papers,  that  the  "temperance  wave"  was 
receding.  How  well  the  brewers  had  gauged 
the  movement  and  its  results  may  be  easily 
ascertained  by  a  glance  at  the  progress  of  the 
anti-liquor  forces  during  the  following  years. 
The  most  important  and  far-reaching  re- 
sults in  the  Anti-Saloon  League  warfare  dur- 
ing this  period  were  secured  in  the  Southern 
states.  While  the  Anti-Saloon  League  was 
born  in  the  North,  the  temperance  sentiment 
in  the  South  generally  was  far  in  advance  of 

99 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

that  in  the  North,  and  the  appHcation  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  method  of  crystalHzing 
sentiment  for  tangible  results,  naturally  op- 
erated more  quickly  and  more  effectively  in  the 
states  of  the  Southland  than  elsewhere  where 
sentiment  was  not  so  strong.  Moreover,  sev- 
eral Southern  states  had  been  pressing  the 
fight  against  the  liquor  traffic  along  lines  sim- 
ilar to  those  employed  by  the  League,  even 
before  any  State  Anti-Saloon  League  organi- 
zations had  been  formed  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  Line. 

Bishop  Galloway,  of  Mississippi,  for  in- 
stance, was  one  of  the  first  vice  presidents  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America,  having 
been  elected  when  the  national  organization 
was  formed  in  1895,  and,  although  it  was  many 
years  before  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Mis- 
sissippi came  into  existence,  the  League  meth- 
ods, under  the  leadership  of  Bishop  Galloway, 
were  responsible  for  the  rapid  progress  which 
was  made  in  the  anti-liquor  warfare  in  Missis- 
sippi by  the  temperance  hosts  before  the  State 
League  was  formally  organized. 

The  one  man  who  is  more  largely  respon- 
sible than  any  other  for  the  organization  of 
the  Anti- Saloon  Leagues  throughout  the 
Southern  states  was  Rev.  George  W.  Young, 

100 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

D.  D.,  of  Kentucky.  Doctor  Young  was  the 
pioneer  of  the  movement  in  the  Blue  Grass 
State.  For  many  years  he  had  been  the  ex- 
ecutive head  and  general  director  of  the  Ken- 
tucy  Local  Option  League,  v^hich,  through  his 
efforts,  was  finally  merged  into  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  Kentucky  in  1904.  Soon 
afterwards  he  was  elected  assistant  superin- 
tendent of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America, 
and  largely  through  his  efforts  during  the 
following  years,  practically  every  Southern 
state  fell  into  line  with  an  active  department  of 
the  League  work. 

The  co-operation  and  influence  of  Doctor 
James  Cannon,  Jr.,  D.  D.,  of  Virginia,  was  also 
especially  helpful  in  getting  the  movement  on 
its  feet  in  the  South.  For  many  years  Doctor 
Cannon  has  been  one  of  the  most  influential 
members  of  the  National  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  League,  as  well  as  the  superintend- 
ent of  the  Virginia  branch  of  the  organization. 

In  1906  the  Alabama  Anti-Saloon  League 
called  to  the  superintendency  of  that  state 
organization  Rev.  Brooks  Lawrence,  who  for 
many  years  had  had  charge  of  the  League 
work  in  the  Toledo,  Ohio,  district.  Mr.  Law- 
rence at  once  began  an  active  campaign  for 
the  passage  of  a  County  Option  Law,  and  as  a 

lOI 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

result  of  the  League  work  carried  on  before  the 
legislature  was  elected  and  during  the  session 
of  that  body  in  1907,  a  splendid  County  Option 
Law  was  enacted,  under  which  twenty-four 
counties  voted  dry  during  the  first  six  months. 
On  the  28th  day  of  October  of  this  same  year, 
Jefferson  county,  Alabama,  including  the  city 
of  Birmingham,  to  the  surprise  of  even  many 
of  the  temperance  people  of  the  state,  voted  to 
abolish  the  saloons  by  a  majority  of  over  1,800. 
This  victory  showed  so  strongly  the  trend  of 
public  sentiment  that  Governor  Comer  im- 
mediately called  a  special  session  of  the  legis- 
lature, and  a  State-Wide  Prohibitory  Law  was 
promptly  enacted,  to  go  into  effect  January  i, 
1909. 

In  Georgia,  during  the  same  year,  a  law 
providing  for  State-Wide  Prohibition  was 
passed  in  the  legislature  by  a  vote  of  thirty- 
four  to  seven  in  the  Senate,  and  by  a  vote  of 
one  hundred  thirty-nine  to  thirty-nine  in  the 
House. 

The  temperance  forces  in  Virginia  also 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  movement  sweeping 
over  the  South,  and  as  a  result  of  the  efforts 
put  forth  in  that  state  during  the  year,  eleven 
of  the  thirteen  municipalities  voting  on  the 
liquor  question  registered  a  majority  against 

102 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

license.  The  movement,  moreover,  swept  the 
state  of  Kentucky,  where,  out  of  thirty-seven 
county  option  elections  held  in  twelve  months, 
thirty-five  resulted  in  temperance  victories; 
while  in  Arkansas  the  legislature  took  advanc- 
ed ground  by  abolishing  all  saloons  outside  of 
municipalities  and  by  prohibiting  the  opera- 
tion of  whisky  drummers  and  the  advertising 
of  liquors  by  wholesalers  throughout  the  state. 

In  Colorado,  under  the  leadership  of  Rev. 
E.  E.  McLaughlin,  at  that  time  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  League  in  that  state,  a  splendid 
local  option  law  was  enacted  providing  for  a 
vote  on  the  liquor  question  by  municipalities, 
wards  and  precincts.  The  temperance  people 
of  Connecticut  secured  from  the  legislature  of 
that  state  three  additional  anti-liquor  laws.  In 
Idaho  a  stringent  Sunday  Closing  Law  was 
written  on  the  statute  books,  thus  giving  a  new 
inspiration  to  the  movement  against  the  liquor 
trafific  in  that  state. 

The  fight  for  a  Local  Option  Law  in  Illinois 
had  been  a  long,  hard  battle,  both  during  the 
administration  of  superintendent  William  H. 
Anderson  and  later  during  the  administration 
of  Rev.  James  K.  Shields,  who  succeeded  Mr. 
Anderson  in  1905  as  superintendent  of  the  Illi- 
nois League.     After  a  hot  campaign  in  1906, 

103 


HISTORY    OF   THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

however,  for  the  election  of  a  legislature,  the 
Hlinois  League,  under  the  leadership  of  State 
Superintendent  Shields,  secured  from  the  leg- 
islature in  1907  a  Local  Option  Law  providing 
for  votes  by  townships,  cities  and  villages.  As 
a  result  of  the  first  votes  taken  under  this 
measure  on  November  5,  1907,  141  of  the  161 
precincts  voting  adopted  no-license,  thereby 
abolishing  in  a  single  day  199  saloons. 

Delaware,  moreover,  secured  during  the 
same  year  a  law  submitting  the  liquor  question 
to  a  vote  of  the  people  of  the  state  by  counties, 
with  the  result  that  when  the  vote  was  taken, 
while  Newcastle  county  and  the  capital  city 
of  Wilmington  retained  the  saloons,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  state  voted  for  Prohibition. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  "Pony  Express" 
Law  was  enacted,  which  measure  aimed  at  the 
illicit  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  dry  terri- 
tory. 

The  Anti-Wineroom  Law  was  enacted  in 
Montana.  Eight  new  dry  counties  were  se- 
cured in  North  Carolina.  The  anti-liquor 
forces  of  Ohio  succeeded  in  destroying,  under 
the  newly-enacted  Search  and  Seizure  Meas- 
ure, over  300  speakeasies,  while  fifty  additional 
villages  and  cities  voted  no-license  under  the 
Beal  Municipal  Local  Option  Law.      In  Ne- 

104 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

braska,  several  new  provisions  were  placed  on 
the  statute  books  of  the  state,  among  others 
being  those  prohibiting  fictitious  shipments  of 
liquors  into  dry  territory,  preventing  saloons 
locating  within  two  and  a  half  miles  of  United 
States  Army  posts,  and  forbidding  saloon 
ownership  by  breweries. 

In  spite  of  the  result  of  the  state  election  in 
Maine  in  the  fall  of  1906,  which  was  a  victory 
for  the  Prohibition  forces,  the  Senate  of  the 
state,  having  a  majority  favorable  to  the  liquor 
traffic,  succeeded  in  securing  the  passage  in 
that  body,  by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to  ten,  of  a  reso- 
lution resubmitting  the  question  of  Prohibi- 
tion to  a  vote  of  the  people.  This  measure, 
however,  was  promptly  killed  by  a  splendid 
majority  in  the  House;  and  Governor  Cobb, 
who  had  been  elected  strictly  on  a  law  enforce- 
ment, Prohibition  platform,  proceeded  to  in- 
augurate a  campaign  of  law  enforcement  such 
as  the  state  of  Maine  had  not  known  for  many 
years. 

In  Missouri,  Minnesota  and  Vermont,  a 
large  number  of  temperance  victories  was  re- 
ported in  the  local  option  elections  held  in  the 
various  towns,  villages  and  other  subdivisions 
of  these  states.  The  amendment  providing  for 
Prohibition  in  the  new  state  of  Oklahoma  was 

105 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

adopted  by  a  vote  of  the  people  by  a  majority 
of  over  18,000.  The  legislature  of  South  Da- 
kota enacted  a  Search  and  Seizure  Law  and 
several  other  splendid  restrictive  temperance 
measures.  In  Tennessee,  the  old  Adams  Law, 
prohibiting  saloons  within  four  miles  of  a 
schoolhouse  or  institution  of  learning  outside 
of  cities  of  5,000  or  more,  was  amended  with 
the  result  that  the  saloon  was  banished  from 
all  but  four  counties  of  the  state. 

A  Residence  District  Local  Option  Law 
was  passed  by  the  legislature  of  Wisconsin. 
Sixty-three  townships  and  four  counties  were 
added  to  the  no-license  column  in  Indiana; 
while  the  legislature  of  the  state  of  Washing- 
ton, through  the  enactment  of  a  Direct  Pri- 
mary Law,  placed  the  liquor  traffic  in  that 
state  more  directly  on  the  defensive  than  it 
had  ever  been,  either  in  territorial  or  statehood 
days. 

Remarkable,  however,  as  were  the  results 
of  the  campaign  of  1907,  the  record  for  1908 
was  even  more  remarkable.  Despite  the  oft- 
repeated  predictions  of  reaction,  the  anti-sa- 
loon wave  continued  to  sweep  the  country. 
On  January  i,  the  State-Wide  Prohibition 
Law  in  Georgia  went  into  effect,  and  from  that 
day  forward  scarcely  a   day  passed   without 

106 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

some  significant  victory  for  the  temperance 
forces. 

At  the  spring  elections  in  the  state  of  Hli- 
nois,  1,053  townships  voted  dry,  abolishing 
thereby  1,500  saloons.  The  temperance  forces 
of  Wisconsin  added  100  new  communities  to 
the  no-license  column,  thereby  abolishing  400 
saloons.  The  results  of  the  spring  elections  in 
Minnesota  showed  a  net  gain  for  the  anti- 
saloon  forces  of  thirty-two  dry  municipalities. 
Thirty  additional  villages  in  Nebraska  also 
voted  no-license.  Ten  additional  counties  in 
Michigan  were  made  dry,  abolishing  thereby 
305  saloons.  A  large  number  of  counties  in 
South  Carolina  outlawed  the  liquor  traffic  un- 
der the  newly-enacted  county  law,  so  that  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  year  twenty-two  of  the 
forty-two  counties  of  that  Southern  state  were 
dry. 

Mississippi,  not  to  be  outdone  by  her  sister 
Southern  states,  passed  a  State-Wide  Prohibi- 
tory Law  during  the  year,  thereby  excluding 
the  liquor  traffic  from  the  seven  remaining  wet 
counties  of  the  state.  A  referendum  vote  on 
the  liquor  question  in  North  Carolina  resulted 
in  the  adoption  of  State-Wide  Prohibition  by 
the  significant  majority  of  44,000  votes.  Un- 
der    the     County    Option    Law    of    Oregon, 

107 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

twenty-one  of  the  thirty-three  counties  abol- 
ished the  saloons  on  June  i,  1908.  In  Colo- 
rado, forty-two  municipalities  voted  dry,  while 
the  local  option  elections  in  Arkansas  showed 
that  of  all  the  votes  cast  in  the  county  option 
elections  throughout  the  state,  the  votes  cast 
against  the  liquor  traffic  exceeded  those  cast 
in  favor  of  it  by  a  majority  of  22,934. 

During  this  year  the  great  liquor  strong- 
hold of  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  where  ''joints" 
had  been  operating  for  years  in  defiance  of  the 
State  Prohibitory  Law,  was  cleaned  up  under 
the  direction  of  the  state  attorney  general. 
Governor  Hoch,  of  Kansas,  moreover,  who  as 
chief  executive  of  the  state,  had  become  a  ter- 
ror to  the  liquor  law  violators,  was  succeeded 
by  Governor  W.  R.  Stubbs,  who  was  likewise 
elected  on  a  temperance  platform,  and  who 
consistently  continued  the  strong  anti-liquor 
policy  of  his  predecessor  in  office. 

South  Dakota  drove  the  saloons  from 
Mitchell  and  several  other  important  towns  of 
the  state  during  this  year,  and  elected  a  Gov- 
ernor and  United  States  Senator  both  of  whom 
were  actively  favorable  to  the  anti-saloon 
cause.  A  number  of  dry  counties  in  Texas 
were  added  to  the  no-license  column,  making 
a  total  of  154  such  counties  in  the  Lone  Star 

108 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

State  without  a  single  saloon.  The  anti-saloon 
map  in  Louisiana  was  whitened  by  the  addition 
of  three  new  dry  parishes 

In  the  Old  Dominion  over  400  drinking 
places  of  all  sorts  were  closed  during  the  year. 
Rhode  Island  abolished  429  saloons  and  passed 
a  law  limiting  the  number  of  licenses  to  one 
for  every  500  of  population  and  prohibiting 
saloons  within  200  feet  of  a  public  or  parochial 
school.  In  Tennessee,  a  legislature  was  elect- 
ed a  majority  of  the  members  of  which  were 
pledged  to  State-Wide  Prohibition,  and  the 
wanton  murder  of  ex-Senator  E.  W.  Carmack 
by  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  political  faction 
controlled  b}^  the  liquor  interests  stirred  the 
state  on  the  temperance  question  as  never  be- 
fore. 

In  Maine  and  North  Dakota,  Governors 
pledged  to  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  Pro- 
hibition Laws  were  elected.  The  number  of 
dry  counties  in  California  was  increased  by 
two.  In  Washington,  a  Governor,  Lieutenant 
Governor  and  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
the  legislature  favorable  to  the  enactment  of 
a  Local  Option  Law  were  elected.  In  the  state 
of  Idaho,  the  Republican  party,  with  a  local 
option  plank  in  its  platform,  swept  the  state 
by  a  large  majority  in  the  general  election. 

109 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Baltimore,  Maryland,  lost  393  saloons  dur- 
ing the  year,  and  one  additional  county  was 
made  dry  in  that  state.  The  towns  and  cities 
of  Massachusetts  voted  250  saloons  out  of 
business,  and  Worcester,  with  a  population  of 
more  than  150,000,  for  the  second  time  regis- 
tered a  majority  against  the  saloons.  In  Iowa, 
461  saloons  were  outlawed.  In  Indiana,  720 
saloons  were  remonstrated  out  of  business,  and 
a  County  Local  Option  Law  was  put  into 
operation  in  the  Hoosier  State  by  action  of  a 
special  session  of  the  legislature  called  by  Gov- 
ernor Hanly. 

The  legislature  in  Ohio  enacted  a  county 
option  measure,  known  as  the  Rose  Law, 
which  went  into  effect  September  i,  1908. 
From  that  time  to  the  end  of  the  year  fifty- 
seven  of  the  sixty-six  counties  voting  on  the 
question  in  the  Buckeye  State  went  dry,  there- 
by abolishing  1,910  saloons. 

Taking  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  dur- 
ing the  year  of  1908,  more  than  11,000  saloons 
were  abolished  by  a  vote  of  the  people. 

The  records  of  1907  and  1908  in  the  matter 
of  saloon  suppression  served  to  make  the 
leaders  of  the  liquor  forces  of  the  nation  des- 
perate. As  a  result,  the  political  campaign  in 
the  fall  of  1908  and  the  several  campaigns  dur- 

IIO 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ing  1909  wherever  the  hquor  question  was  in- 
volved were  the  most  stubbornly  contested  of 
any  of  the  campaigns  which  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  had  been  compelled  to  face. 

In  the  fall  of  1908,  the  liquor  interests  of 
the  nation  concentrated  their  efforts  in  the  at- 
tempt to  defeat  Governor  Harris,  of  Ohio,  and 
the  Honorable  James  E.  Watson,  of  Indiana, 
local  option  candidate  for  Governor  on  the 
Republican  ticket.  This  special  effort  was 
made  in  the  hope  that  by  making  such  a  dem- 
onstration of  the  saloon  voting  strength  as  to 
defeat  these  temperance  candidates  the  county 
option  laws  of  these  two  states,  which  had  al- 
ready wrought  such  havoc  with  the  liquor 
traffic,  might,  as  a  result,  be  repealed.  Gov- 
ernor Harris  and  Mr.  Watson  both  were  de- 
feated; but  when  the  liquor  interests  came  to 
size  up  the  legislators  who  were  elected  in  both 
of  these  states,  the  hope  of  reaction  or  im- 
mediate repeal  of  the  County  Option  Law  in 
either  state  soon  vanished.  During  the  legis- 
lative session  of  1909  in  the  state  of  Ohio,  not 
only  was  every  effort  to  repeal  any  temperance 
statute  defeated,  but  a  number  of  additional 
temperance  laws  were  enacted. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1909,  the  doors 
of  all  licensed  saloons  in  the  states  of  Alabama, 

III 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Mississippi  and  North  Carolina  were  closed, 
the  State-Wide  Prohibition  Laws  going  into 
effect  on  that  day  in  each  of  these  three  states. 
Soon  after  this,  the  legislature  of  Tennessee 
extended  the  Four-Mile  Law  to  include  all 
sections  of  the  state,  thus  adopting  State- 
Wide  Prohibition  by  indirect  action.  During 
the  same  session  of  the  legislature,  however, 
another  bill,  prohibiting  the  manufacture  of 
intoxicating  liquors  in  the  state,  was  enacted. 

South  Carolina  adopted  county  Prohibition 
with  a  referendum  for  every  county  in  the 
state.  Both  houses  of  the  legislature  of  Ar- 
kansas enacted  State-Wide  Prohibition  meas- 
ures, but  by  reason  of  the  failure  of  the  Sen- 
ate and  the  House  to  agree  on  any  particular 
law,  the  matter  was  allowed  to  go  by  default. 

The  legislature  of  the  state  of  Iowa  enacted 
five  anti-liquor  provisions  during  the  legisla- 
tive session  of  that  year,  limiting  the  evils  of 
the  liquor  traffic  in  various  ways.  The  laws  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire  were  strengthened 
by  a  number  of  restrictive  provisions.  In 
Washington,  a  municipal  and  rural  County 
Unit  Local  Option  Law  was  enacted,  and  a 
county  option  measure  was  adopted  by  the 
legislature  of  Idaho. 

In  Delaware,  the  question  of  license  or  Pro- 

112 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

hibition  was  submitted  to  the  only  wet  county 
in  the  state,  with  the  result,  however,  that  the 
county  retained  the  saloons.  A  County  Option 
Law  was  enacted  in  Arizona.  The  anti-liquor 
laws  of  Montana  were  strengthened.  Wyom- 
ing abolished  all  saloons  outside  of  incorporat- 
ed towns.  The  Kansas  legislature  passed 
a  stringent  measure  prohibiting  the  sale  of  in- 
toxicating liquors  for  all  purposes  except  for 
sacramental  use.  Nebraska  limited  open  sa- 
loons to  the  hours  between  7  a.  m.  and  8  p.  m. 
The  legislature  of  Utah  enacted  a  County 
Option  Law,  which  was  vetoed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor after  the  legislature  adjourned.  This 
action  upon  the  part  of  the  Governor  so 
aroused  the  temperance  forces  that  organiza- 
tions were  effected  in  the  several  counties  and 
municipalities  of  the  state,  and,  as  a  result, 
more  than  half  the  counties  of  the  state 
promptly  abolished  the  saloons  by  local  decree. 
A  number  of  additional  counties  in  Colo- 
rado were  made  dry  during  the  year.  The 
number  of  no-license  counties  in  Illinois  was 
increased  by  four,  and  in  the  fall  election  in 
that  state  twenty-eight  of  the  thirty-six  places 
voting  adopted  no-license.  Twelve  counties 
were  gained  by  the  temperance  forces  in  Texas, 
three  in  Kentucky,  two  in  Pennsylvania  and 

113 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

eight  in  West  Virginia.  The  lower  house  of 
the  West  Virginia  legislature  passed  a  Pro- 
hibition Bill,  which,  however,  finally  failed  in 
the  Senate.  A  net  gain  for  the  anti-saloon 
forces  of  eighty-eight  towns  was  the  result  of 
the  elections  in  New  York  state. 

Sixty  counties  in  Indiana  voted  dry  during 
the  year.  Several  temperance  measures  were 
enacted  by  the  legislatures  of  Connecticut  and 
South  Dakota.  A  Local  Option  Bill  in  the 
Pennsylvania  legislature  was  brought  to  a  vote 
in  the  House,  but  was  defeated.  A  resolution 
submitting  the  Prohibition  Amendment  to  a 
vote  of  the  people  was  passed  by  the  legisla- 
ture of  Florida.  The  Prohibitory  Amendment 
submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  in  Alabama 
was  rejected.  Strong  law  enforcement  meas- 
ures were  passed  by  both  the  legislature  of 
Alabama  and  Georgia.  And  Congress  enacted 
what  is  known  as  the  C.  O.  D.  Liquor  Ship- 
ment Measure,  preventing  express  companies 
and  their  public  carriers  from  participating  in 
the  jug  trade  imder  the  guise  of  interstate 
agencies. 

The  record  of  progress  for  the  temperance 
forces  during  1910  was,  in  many  respects,  the 
most  important  and  significant  of  any  during 
the  life  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  up  to  that 

114 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

time.  The  legislature  of  Texas  passed  a  law 
making  the  sale  of  liquor  in  dry  territory  a 
felony.  The  effort  on  the  part  of  the  liquor 
forces  to  repeal  the  Prohibitory  Law  of  Okla- 
homa resulted  in  a  defeat  for  the  liquor  amend- 
ment by  a  majority  of  over  22,000  votes.  Sev- 
eral additional  counties  and  a  number  of  small 
cities  in  Missouri  adopted  no-license. 

After  a  campaign  in  Michigan,  during 
which  more  than  1,000  public  demonstrations 
were  held  throughout  the  state,  twenty  of  the 
thirty-six  counties  voting  on  the  local  option 
question  abolished  the  saloons,  thus  making  a 
net  increase  of  ten  dry  counties  in  the  state  and 
voting  out  of  business  319  saloons  and  six 
breweries. 

The  largest  number  of  no-license  elections 
ever  held  in  the  state  took  place  in  Wisconsin, 
resulting  in  a  net  gain  of  about  twenty-five  no- 
license  communities.  In  South  Dakota,  sixty- 
four  saloons  were  voted  out  of  twenty-one 
towns  and  cities  at  the  regular  elections.  Lin- 
coln, the  capital  city  of  Nebraska,  in  a  local 
option  election,  voted  to  remain  dry  by  an  in- 
creased majority. 

The  proposition  to  submit  a  Constitutional 
Prohibitory  Amendment  to  a  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple carried  in  the  Texas  primary  elections  by 

115 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

30,000  majority.  The  pro-liquor  nominations 
for  Governor  by  the  Republicans  and  Demo- 
crats in  Pennsylvania  resulted  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Keystone  party,  carrying-  a  local 
option  plank  in  its  platform  and  local  option 
candidates  for  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor, with  the  result  that  these  candidates  on 
the  Keystone  party  ticket  came  w^ithin  30,000 
votes  of  being  elected.  Honorable  B.  W. 
Hooper,  standing  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Prohibitory  Laws  in  Tennessee,  was  elected 
Governor  by  a  fusion  of  the  temperance  Demo- 
crats and  Republicans  in  that  state. 

The  state  elections  in  the  several  counties 
of  Arkansas  resulted  in  an  aggregate  majority 
against  license  in  that  state  of  23,102  votes, 
and,  as  a  result  of  these  elections,  only  twelve 
wet  counties  were  left  in  the  state  out  of  a 
total  of  seventy-five.  As  a  result  of  the  work 
of  Chief  Special  Officer  W.  E.  Johnson,  of  the 
United  States  Indian  Service,  the  saloons  in 
six  counties  of  Minnesota,  as  well  as  those  in 
large  sections  of  two  other  counties,  were 
closed.  Of  the  forty-nine  cities  and  towns  of 
Washington  voting  under  the  new  Local 
Option  Law  of  that  state,  twenty-eight  voted 
dry  during  the  year.  This  number  included 
the  city  of  Bellingham,  with  35,000  population, 

116 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

and  the  city  of  Everett,  with  30,000  popula- 
tion. As  a  result  of  the  campaign  in  New 
Hampshire,  eight  cities  and  twenty-three 
towns  voted  for  license  in  the  local  option 
elections,  and  three  cities  and  201  towns  voted 
against  license. 

The  Republican  candidate  for  Governor  in 
Nebraska,  who  was  supported  by  the  anti- 
liquor  forces  of  both  parties,  was  elected.  The 
people  of  Pennsylvania  elected  a  larger  num- 
ber of  legislators  favorable  to  local  option 
than  during  any  previous  year  in  the  history 
of  the  League  in  that  state. 

The  number  of  saloons  in  Baltimore  City 
was  reduced  during  the  year  by  248.  A  num- 
ber of  counties  were  added  to  the  no-license 
lists  in  Indiana,  Idaho,  California  and  Ken- 
tucky, while  decisive  victories  for  the  temper- 
ance forces  in  local  option  contests  were  re- 
corded in  Arizona,  Virginia  and  Ohio. 

This  year,  however,  witnessed  a  number 
of  defeats  for  the  temperance  forces  in  the  sev- 
eral states. 

Under  the  initiative  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  Missouri,  the  question  of 
State-Wide  Prohibition  was  submitted  to  the 
voters  of  that  state,  with  the  result  that  the 
amendment  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  more 

117 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

than  200,000.  The  local  option  elections  in 
Illinois  resulted,  for  the  most  part,  in  victories 
for  the  temperance  forces;  but  Rockford,  De- 
catur and  a  few  smaller  cities  changed  from 
no-licensc  to  license. 

The  election  on  the  Prohibitory  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  held  in  Florida  in 
November  resulted  in  a  pro-liquor  victory  by 
a  majority  of  4,600,  the  four  counties  of  the 
state  having  the  largest  negro  vote  recording 
a  majority  against  the  amendments  of  over 
4,900.  In  Oregon,  the  Prohibitory  Amend- 
ment submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  v^as 
defeated  by  20,000  majority,  and  the  liquor 
amendment  giving  home  rule  to  cities  was 
carried  by  3,000  majority.  A  number  of  coun- 
ties, moreover,  in  the  state  of  Oregon  changed 
from  no-license  to  license,  while  fifteen  coun- 
ties continued  dry. 

Carl  Etherington,  a  special  enforcement 
officer,  who,  with  other  officers,  armed  with 
search  and  seizure  warrants,  raided  a  number 
of  blind  tigers  in  Newark,  Ohio,  and  who  was 
finally  compelled  in  self-defense  to  shoot  a 
speakeasy  keeper  who  murderously  assaulted 
him,  was  taken  from  the  county  jail  by  a 
drunken  mob  and  lynched  on  the  public  square 
of  Newark.     The  mayor  of  Newark  and  the 

118 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

sheriff  of  Licking  county,  who  failed  to  protect 
Special  Officer  Etherington,  were  compelled  to 
resign  their  offices  to  avoid  being  removed  by 
the  governor;  and  the  county  grand  jury 
promptly  returned  fifty-eight  indictments 
against  the  Etherington  murderers. 

A  monster  petition  containing  74,805 
names  was  filed  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  calling 
for  a  vote  on  the  no-license  question  in  that 
metropolis,  but  the  board  of  elections  refused 
to  honor  the  petition  and  order  the  election. 


119 


Chapter  V. 
Reaction  and  Revival 


However  the  battle  is  ended, 

Though  proudly  the  victor  comes, 
With  fluttering  flags  and  prancing  nagc 

And  echoing  roll  of   drums. 
Still  truth  proclaims  this  motto. 

In  letters  of  living  light: 
No  question  is  ever  settled 

Until  it  is  settled  right. 

Though  the  heel  of  the  strong  oppressor 

May  grind  the  weak  in  the  dust, 
And  the  voices  of  fame  with  one  acclaim 

May  call  him  great  and  just. 
Let  those  who  applaud  take  warning, 

And  keep  this  motto  in  sight : 
No  question  is  ever  settled 

Until  it  is  settled  right. 

Let  those  who  have  failed  take  courage ; 

Though  the  enemy  seemed  to  have  won. 
Though  his  ranks  are  strong,  if  in  the  wrong 

The  battle  is  not  yet  done. 
For,  sure  as  the  morning  follows 

The  darkest  hour  of  the  night, 
No  question   is   ever  settled 

Until  it  is  settled  right. 

— Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 


Reaction  and  Revival 


D 


URING  191 1  the  anti-saloon  forces 
which  had  succeeded  in  making 
such  tremendous  strides  during  the 
first  decade  of  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury, experienced  a  decided  reaction  in  a  num- 
ber of  states,  both  in  the  matter  of  legislation 
and  in  the  number  of  pro-liquor  victories  in 
local  option  contests. 

The  legislature  of  Alabama  repealed  the 
State  Prohibitory  Law.  The  County  Option 
Law  submitted  to  the  legislature  of  Nebraska 
was  defeated  by  a  small  majority.  At  one 
session  of  the  legislature  of  New  York  state, 
sixty-eight  pro-liquor  bills  were  introduced, 
and  five  pro-liquor  measures  were  finally  en- 
acted into  law.  The  Prohibition  Amendment 
to  the  Constitution  in  Texas  was  defeated  by 
about  7,000  out  of  a  total  of  466,000  votes. 
There  were  strong  indications,  however,  that 
the  amendment  really  carried  by  a  large  ma- 
jority, but  that  the  temperance  forces  were 
counted  out  through  corrupt  methods. 

The  legislature  of  Indiana,  upon  the  rec- 
123 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ommendation  of  the  Democrat  party  bosses 
and  with  the  approval  of  Governor  Marshall, 
repealed  the  County  Option  Law  passed  in 
1908,  enacting  in  its  place  a  city  and  township 
local  option  measure,  as  a  result  of  which 
forty-six  counties  of  the  state  dry  under  the 
county  law  opened  their  doors  for  the  return 
of  saloons.  In  the  county  option  elections  held 
in  Ohio  during  the  year,  fourteen  of  the 
twenty-one  counties  voting  on  the  question 
changed  from  no-license  to  license,  while  a 
goodly  number  of  small  victories  were  record- 
ed in  favor  of  the  liquor  forces  in  several  other 
states. 

These  reverses,  together  with  the  discour- 
agement which  had  come  to  the  anti-saloon 
forces  by  reason  of  the  defeat  in  Oregon  the 
year  before  and  the  failure  to  adopt  Prohibi- 
tion in  Florida,  presented  a  dark  picture  to  the 
temperance  forces  in  the  other  states.  In  spite  of 
this  fact,  however,  a  number  of  important  vic- 
tories were  recorded  in  certain  sections  of  the 
country. 
i         A  splendid  Local  Option  Law  was  passed 
I     by  the  legislature  of  California,  as  a  result  of 
I    which  a  large  number  of  villages  and  super- 
l    visorial   districts   were   made   dry   during   the 
year.    The  legislature  of  Connecticut  passed  a 

124 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

number  of  wholesome  anti-liquor  laws,  among 
them  being  one  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquor 
by  druggists  except  on  prescription  during  the 
hours  of  days  when  saloons  are  closed,  and 
another  prohibiting  the  employment  of  women 
in  places  where  liquors  are  sold. 

In  the  District  of  Columbia,  seventy-five 
efforts  to  establish  new  liquor  places  were  de- 
feated by  the  activity  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League;  so  that  by  the  end  of  the  year  there 
were  fewer  saloons  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
than  at  any  time  since  the  birth  of  the  League 
in  1893.  The  effort  to  repeal  the  Prohibition 
Law  of  Georgia  by  an  amendment  permitting 
the  sale  of  fermented  liquors  was  defeated.  A 
strong  Search  and  Seizure  Law  and  a  number 
of  other  temperance  measures  were  passed  by 
the  legislature  of  Idaho,  only,  however,  to  be 
vetoed  by  the  Governor  of  that  state. 

The  dry  territory  in  Kentucky  was  in- 
creased during  the  year  by  about  150  square 
miles.  The  effort  to  repeal  the  Prohibition 
Law  in  Maine  was  successfully  combatted  by 
the  anti-saloon  forces.  The  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  liquor  forces  to  repeal  the  County  Op- 
tion Law  of  Michigan  also  met  with  defeat. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  state  of 
Minnesota,  more  than  half  of  all  the  villages 

125 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

and  cities  voting  on  the  liquor  question  during 
the  year  voted  dry.  The  Bar  and  Bottle  Law 
passed  by  the  Massachusetts  legislature  of 
1910  showed  a  marked  improvement  in  the 
curtailment  of  liquor  selling  during  the  year. 

In  the  ten  county  option  elections  held  in 
Missouri  in  191 1,  the  net  dry  majority  was 
6,256,  against  a  net  dry  majority  of  2,478  for 
the  same  counties  in  1907.  The  legislature  of 
North  Carolina,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote 
in  both  houses,  passed  a  law  prohibiting  the 
sale  of  near  beer  and  put  a  stop  to  the  so-called 
"clubs,"  prohibiting  such  corporations  or  as- 
sociations from  directly  or  indirectly  keeping 
a  clubroom  where  intoxicating  liquors  are 
used.  At  the  election  held  in  Rhode  Island 
on  November  7,  191 1,  eight  towns,  with  a 
population  of  15,906,  voted  dry,  and  thirty 
towns  and  cities,  with  a  population  of  526,704, 
voted  wet.  This,  however,  showed  a  gain  of 
one  town  for  the  temperance  forces,  all  of  the 
towns  previously  dry  voting  to  remain  under 
Prohibition,  and  one  town  changing  from  li- 
cense to  no-license. 

As  a  result  of  the  elections  in  Utah  during 
the  year,  loi  saloons  were  swept  out  of  ex- 
istence, leaving  only  235  such  establishments 

126 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

doing  business  in  the  state,  141  of  which  num- 
ber were  located  in  Salt  Lake  City. 

While  191 1  may  be  termed  a  year  of  re- 
action in  the  temperance  warfare  because  of 
the  many  decided  reverses  which  the  anti- 
saloon  forces  suffered,  the  year  1912  and  the 
early  part  of  the  year  1913  may  well  be  termed 
the  period  of  revival;  for,  during  that  period, 
not  only  did  the  temperance  forces  succeed  in 
checking  the  advance  of  the  liquor  army,  but 
the  tide  of  battle  was  turned  in  such  a  way  as 
to  show  that  the  seeming  recession  of  the  tem- 
perance wave  of  191 1  was  only  temporary,  and 
that  the  normal  temperance  sentiment  of  the 
nation  was  still  moving  in  the  right  direction. 

During  this  year,  moreover,  the  very 
largely  increased  output  of  temperance  litera- 
ture, which  came  as  a  result  of  the  establish- 
ing of  the  League's  publishing  house  at  Wes- 
terville,  began  to  tell  in  an  effective  way. 

The  publishing  house  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  incorporated  under  the  name.  The 
American  Issue  Publishing  Company,  was 
established  in  1909.  For  a  number  of  years 
the  national  officers  of  the  League  had  been 
convinced  that  the  Anti-Saloon  League  should 
have  a  publishing  house  of  its  own  and  that  the 
various  official  organs  published  by  the  State 

127 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Leagues  should  either  be  merged  into  one 
periodical  for  general  circulation,  or  at  least 
into  state  editions  of  a  national  organ.  Up  to 
1907,  however,  no  specific  move  had  been  made 
in  that  direction.  Late  in  1907,  The  American 
Issue,  which  at  that  time  was  being  published 
as  the  state  organ  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League 
of  Ohio,  was  made  the  official  national  organ, 
and  the  place  of  publication  was  changed  from 
Columbus,  Ohio,  to  Chicago,  Illinois.  Doctor 
J.  C.  Jackson  was  made  editor-in-chief,  and  the 
movement  was  started  to  secure  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  State  League  in  the  publication  of 
state  editions  of  The  American  Issue.  The 
first  edition  of  the  paper  to  be  published  under 
this  new  plan  was  the  Ohio  edition,  published 
under  date  of  November  9,  1907.  None  of  the 
other  state  papers,  however,  was  merged  into 
the  American  Issue  until  early  in  1908. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  The  Issue 
was  transferred  from  Columbus  to  Chicago, 
Doctor  Jackson,  the  editor  of  the  paper,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  anti-saloon 
movement  and  whose  pen,  perhaps,  had  done 
more  effective  service  in  the  fight  against  the 
liquor  traffic  in  the  United  States  than  any 
other,  began  to  show  signs  of  failing  health, 
and  in  January,  1908,  was  compelled  to  under- 

128 


HISTORY   OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

go  a  serious  operation  at  Wesley  Hospital, 
from  which  he  never  fully  recovered.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1908,  Ernest  H.  Cherrington,  then  su- 
perintendent of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of 
Washington,  was  called  to  Chicago  by  the 
General  Superintendent  and  National  Head- 
quarters Coniiiiittee  as  the  associate  editor  of 
The  American  Issue  and  general  manager  of 
the  National  League's  publishing  interests. 
During  this  year,  eight  state  Leagues  joined 
The  American  Issue  family,  making  nine  state 
editions  of  the  paper.  Early  in  1909  the  num- 
ber of  state  editions  had  reached  fifteen,  and 
the  promise  of  early  co-operation  on  the  part 
of  other  State  Leagues,  not  yet  represented  in 
The  American  Issue  family,  encouraged  the 
national  officers  of  the  League  to  launch  a 
movement  for  the  erection  of  a  publishing 
plant  which  would  be  entirely  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  national  organization  and  which 
would  print  nothing  but  temperance  literature. 
The  people  of  Westerville,  Ohio,  located 
twelve  miles  from  the  center  of  the  city  of  Co- 
lumbus, on  the  C.  A.  &  C.  Railroad,  and  also 
in  direct  connection  with  Columbus  by  street 
car  service,  offered  to  donate  to  the  Anti-Sa- 
loon League  a  tract  of  ground  costing  ap- 
proximately $10,000,  to  be  used  for  the  erection 

129 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

of  a  publishing  plant.  After  due  consideration, 
the  National  League  accepted  the  offer,  and 
the  erection  of  the  building  was  begun  in  the 
spring  of  1909.  The  building  was  completed 
in  October  of  the  same  year,  and  during  that 
month  the  publication  interests  of  the  League 
were  transferred  from  Chicago  to  Westerville. 
While  the  plant  was  being  erected  at  Wes- 
terville, in  June,  1909,  Doctor  Jackson,  the 
editor-in-chief,  died.  His  death,  though  not 
unexpected,  since  he  had  never  fully  recovered 
from  his  illness  in  Chicago  early  in  1908, 
nevertheless  came  as  a  great  shock  to  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  forces  and  left  The  American 
Issue  without  an  editorial  head  at  a  most 
critical  time,  for  Doctor  Jackson,  although 
confined  to  his  home  for  a  good  part  of  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  continued  to  furnish  a  very 
large  part  of  the  editorial  matter  for  the  sev- 
eral editions  of  The  American  Issue  up  to  the 
very  last  week  of  his  life.  Later,  the  National 
Headquarters  Committee  elected  the  associate 
editor,  Mr.  Ernest  H.  Cherrington,  to  succeed 
Doctor  Jackson  as  editor-in-chief  of  the 
League's  publications.  When  the  Anti-Saloon 
Leage  of  America  began  the  work  of  erecting 
the  publishing  house  at  Westerville,  it  did  not 
have  a  single  dollar  to  invest  in  such  an  enter- 

130 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

prise,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  property 
donated  by  the  citizens  of  Westerville,  the 
League  had  nothing  in  the  way  of  tangible  as- 
sets for  such  an  undertaking.  The  men  at  the 
head  of  the  movement,  however,  had  the  faith 
to  beheve  that  the  temperance  pubhc  would 
not  allow  such  an  undertaking  to  fail;  they 
also  had  the  courage  to  begin  the  erection  of 
the  building  at  the  same  time  that  the  move- 
ment for  securing  the  necessary  funds  was  in- 
augurated. 

Among  those  who  came  to  the  rescue  of 
the  League  at  this  critical  time,  giving  of  their 
time,  money,  experience  and  influence  in  a 
special  way,  were  Mr.  William  M.  Miller,  who 
directed  the  building  of  the  plant  and  purchas- 
ed a  very  large  part  of  its  equipment ;  Mr. 
Foster  Copeland,  Mr.  Ernest  R.  Root  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Dunlap,  whose  financial  backing  of  the 
project  was  absolutely  essential  to  success,  and 
Mr.  George  W.  Gray,  whose  long  experience 
in  the  publishing  business  and  whose  intimate 
knowledge  of  cost-finding  systems  made  his 
assistance,  which  was  wnllingly  and  gladly 
given,  of  inestimable  value. 

By  the  close  of  the  year  1912  this  publish- 
ing plant  represented  an  actual  investment  of 
almost  $125,000.     The  American  issue   Pub- 

131 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI -SALOON    LEAGUE 

lishing  Company  by  that  time  was  issuing 
tliirly-one  different  state  editions  of  The 
American  Issue,  with  an  aggregate  circulation 
of  more  than  500,000  per  month.  The  eight 
presses  installed  in  the  plant  were  printing,  all 
told,  more  than  forty  tons  of  temperance  litera- 
ture each  month,  which  output  was  an  equiva- 
lent of  250,000,000  ordinary  book  pages  of 
literature  per  year,  or  an  average  of  almost 
700,000  book  pages  per  day.  At  that  time, 
moreover,  the  regular  employees  of  the  com- 
pany numbered  seventy-two;  which  number 
did  not  include  the  state  editors  or  any  of  the 
persons  connected  with  the  paper  employed 
by  State  Anti-Saloon  Leagues.  It  included 
only  those  who  were  on  the  payroll  of  The 
American  Issue  Publishing  Company  proper. 

In  addition  to  the  several  editions  of  The 
American  Issue  and  The  American  Patriot, 
which  at  that  time  the  company  was  publish- 
ing, The  New  Republic,  edited  by  Mr,  W.  E. 
Johnson,  late  Chief  Special  Officer  of  the 
United  States  Indian  Service,  was  also  being 
published  by  the  company,  as  well  as  folders, 
leaflets,  tracts,  books  and  pamphlets  by  the 
million. 

The  American  Issue  Publishing  Company 
was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  the  state 

132 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

of  Ohio.  In  order  to  comply  with  these  laws 
there  are  just  five  stockholders,  or  directors, 
of  the  corporation.  Each  of  these  stock- 
holders, however,  holds  his  stock  as  a  trustee 
of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America,  and 
the  National  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  America  elects  these  five 
trustees  for  a  term  of  two  years  each.  Every 
one  of  these  stockholders  and  directors  serves 
as  such  without  salary  or  compensation  of  any 
kind,  and  every  cent  of  profits  from  the  opera- 
tion of  the  publishing  plant  goes  directly  to 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America. 

The  directors  of  the  American  Issue  Pub- 
lishing Company  in  1912  were  Mr.  Filmore 
Condit,  of  New  York,  chairman;  Doctor  James 
Cannon,  Jr.,  D.  D.,  of  Richmond,  Virginia, 
vice  chairman;  Mr.  George  L.  Stoughton,  of 
Westerville,  Ohio,  secretary;  Mr.  W.  B. 
Wheeler,  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  Rev.  P.  A. 
Baker,  D.  D.,  of  Westerville,  Ohio.  The  gen- 
eral manager  of  The  American  Issue  Publish- 
ing Company,  as  well  as  the  general  manager 
of  all  the  National  League  publishing  interests, 
was  Ernest  H.  Cherrington,  of  Westerville, 
Ohio. 

One  important  feature  in  connection  with 
this  publishing  plant  is  that  its  machines  have 

133 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

been  used  entirely  for  the  purpose  of  publish- 
ing temperance  literature.  No  commercial 
work  of  any  kind  has  ever  been  done  by  the 
publishing  house.  Its  entire  activities  have 
been  directed  toward  publishing  periodicals, 
books,  pamphlets  and  tracts  that  would  do 
execution  in  the  fight  against  the  liquor  traffic. 

In  1912,  and  in  the  early  part  of  1913,  ad- 
vanced temperance  legislation  was  enacted  in 
the  states  of  Arkansas,  California,  Connecti- 
cut, Georgia,  Idaho,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Michi- 
gan, Minnesota,  Missouri,  New  Mexico,  North 
Carolina,  Ohio,  Oklahoma,  Oregon,  Utah, 
West  Virginia  and  the  District  of  Columbia. 

On  September  9,  1912,  the  referendum  on 
State-Wide  Prohibition  submitted  to  the 
voters  of  Arkansas  resulted  in  a  victory  for 
license  by  a  majority  of  15,968.  The  legisla- 
ture of  1913,  however,  passed  a  provision 
putting  the  entire  state  under  Prohibition,  al- 
lowing the  Prohibition  provision  to  be  sus- 
pended only  where  a  majority  make  petition 
for  saloons  under  certain  conditions.  Through 
the  operation  of  the  newly-enacted  Local  Op- 
tion Law  in  California,  the  number  of  dry 
towns  in  that  state  was  increased  from  about 
200  in  1910  to  682  in  191 2  The  operation  of 
the  Bar  and  Bottle  Law  in  Massachusetts  dur- 

134 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

ing  1912  resulted  in  a  remarkable  decrease  in 
arrests  for  drunkenness  in  license  cities  of  that 
state  and  in  better  conditions,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  temperance  reform,  in  every  way. 

The  passage  of  the  county  option  law  in 
Missouri  in  1913,  giving  the  right  to  vote  on 
the  liquor  question  in  counties  as  units  with- 
out exempting  cities  from  the  operation  of  the 
law,  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  tem- 
perance reform  in  that  state.  It  is  conserva- 
tively estimated  that  under  the  operation  of 
this  law  in  all  probability  the  number  of  dry 
counties  in  Missouri  will  quickly  be  increased 
from  sixty-four  to  at  least  100.  Local  option 
elections  in  New  Hampshire  in  1912  resulted 
in  203  towns  voting  against  license,  while  only 
twenty-one  in  the  entire  state  voted  for  license. 

In  Ohio,  while  the  license  provision  of  the 
new  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1912  by  vir- 
tue of  the  fact  that  between  600,000  and  800,- 
000  voters  in  the  state  did  not  vote  on  the 
question  at  all,  and  while  the  legislature  of 
1913  passed  a  License  Law,  the  temperance 
forces  succeeded  in  safeguarding  all  the  anti- 
liquor  laws  on  the  statute  books  and,  in  addi- 
tion, forcing  into  the  new  license  statute  be- 
tween thirty  and  forty  stringent  restrictions 

135 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

against  the  liquor  traffic  in  license  cities  and 
villages. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
on  June  lo,  1912,  handed  down  a  decision  hold- 
ing that  the  Federal  Prohibition  Law  for  the 
Indian  Territory  and  other  Indian  reservations 
in  Oklahoma  was  still  in  existence,  and  that  it 
would  continue  so  for  at  least  twenty-one 
years,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
Enabling  Act.  The  Oklahoma  legislature  of 
1913,  moreover,  strengthened  the  State-Wide 
Prohibition  Law  by  making  joint-keeping  a 
felony.  On  November  5,  1912,  West  Virginia, 
by  a  majority  of  92,342  out  of  a  total  of  235,843 
votes,  adopted  State-Wide  Prohibition,  all  the 
counties  of  the  state  with  the  exception  of 
three  returning  majorities  in  favor  of  Prohi- 
bition. 

In  addition  to  the  victories  mentioned 
above,  the  Oregon  legislature  passed  a  bill 
prohibiting  the  shipment  of  liquor  from  wet 
territory  to  dry  territory  within  the  state.  A 
number  of  other  minor  bills  were  also  enacted 
by  the  legislature.  A  very  sweeping  Search 
and  Seizure  Law  was  enacted  by  the  legisla- 
ture in  North  Carolina.  The  Minnesota  legis- 
lature enacted  a  measure  giving  local  option  to 
cities  of  less  than  10,000  population.    In  South 

136 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Dakota,  a  law  was  enacted  limiting  the  num- 
ber of  saloons  to  one  for  every  600  of  the  popu- 
lation. A  County  Option  Law  was  enacted  in 
New  Mexico,  with  a  provision  that  munici- 
palities with  300  population  or  more  may  vote 
separately  on  the  question.  The  legislature  of 
Indiana  passed  a  bill  prohibiting  liquor  drink- 
ing on  trains  except  in  buffet  or  dining  cars. 
The  Kansas  legislature  enacted  a  law  requir- 
ing railroads  and  express  companies  to  keep  a 
record  of  liquor  receipts ;  while  in  Utah  a  meas- 
ure was  enacted  providing  for  injunction  and 
abatement  similar  to  the  Iowa  law,  except  that 
it  applies  to  liquor  nuisances  as  well  as  to  other 
places  where  liquors  are  sold. 

By  action  of  Congress  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia was  benefited  by  the  passage  of  the  so- 
called  Jones-Works  Bill,  prohibiting  saloons 
in  residence  districts  or  near  churches  and 
schools,  and  so  limiting  the  number  of  saloons 
as  to  cut  the  number  in  operation  down  by 
about  three  hundred. 

The  crowning  victory  of  the  period  and,  in 
fact,  of  the  twenty  years  of  the  Anti-Saloon 
League's  existence,  was  the  passage  by  Con- 
gress of  the  so-called  Webb-Kenyon  Bill  dur- 
ing the  closing  days  of  the  Sixty-second  Con- 
gress, prohibiting  thereby  the  shipment  in  in- 

137 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

terstate  commerce  of  intoxicating  liquors  in- 
tended to  be  used  for  the  violation  of  the  laws 
of  any  state  to  which  the  shipment  is  con- 
signed. The  victory  was  all  the  more  em- 
phatic by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  the  measure 
was  passed  in  both  houses  over  the  veto  of 
President  Taft.  This  action  by  Congress 
marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  temper- 
ance movement,  not  only  because  of  the  direct 
results  bound  to  follow  the  passage  of  the 
Webb-Kenyon  Law,  but  also  in  showing  the 
general  trend  of  public  sentiment  against  the 
liquor  traffic  throughout  the  country,  voiced 
as  it  was  by  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  in  the  National  House 
of  Representatives  and  the  United  States 
Senate. 


138 


Chapter  VL 

The  Evolution  of  a  Nation- 
wide Crusade 


For  Humanity  sweeps  onward :  where 

today  the  martyr  stands, 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas  with  the 

silver  in  his  hands; 
Far  in  front  the  cross  stands  ready  and 

the  crackling  fagots  burn, 
While  the  hooting  mob  of  yesterday  in 

silent  awe  return 
To  glean  up  the  scattered  ashes  into 

History's  golden  urn. 

New  occasions  teach  new  duties ;  Thine 

makes  ancient  good  uncouth ; 
They  must  upward  still,  and  onward, 

who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth ; 
Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires !  we 

ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly 

through  the  desperate  winter  sea. 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with 

the  Past's  blood-rusted  key. 

— James  Russell  Lowell. 


The  Evolution  of  a  Nation-  Wide  Crusade 


THE  passage  by  Congress  of  the  In- 
terstate Liquor  Shipment  Bill  re- 
ferred to  in  the  last  chapter,  was 
the  result  of  twelve  long  years  of 
persistent  effort  upon  the  part  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  and  the  temperance  forces 
throughout  the  nation  to  secure  remedial  Fed- 
eral legislation. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
grants  to  Congress  alone  the  right  to  regulate 
interstate  commerce.  Because  of  this  condi- 
tion, the  most  stringent  Prohibitory  Law 
passed  by  any  state,  or  put  into  operation  in 
any  section  of  a  state,  was  absolutely  power- 
less to  seize,  or  to  in  any  way  interfere  with  a 
consignment  of  intoxicating  liquors  shipped 
from  the  wet  territory  of  one  state  into  the  dry 
territory  of  another,  because  such  shipments 
were  protected  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  against  the  officers  and  government  of 
any  state,  in  the  name  of  interstate  commerce. 
Because  of  this  Constitutional  provision, 
the  Federal  government  had  come  to  be  a  pro- 

141 


illSTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

tector  of  the  liquor  interests,  which  interests 
persistently  insisted  upon  violating  the  pro- 
hibitory and  regulatory  laws  of  the  several 
states.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of  correcting 
this  difficulty,  therefore,  that  measures  pro- 
viding a  remedy  were  from  time  to  time  be- 
tween 1902  and  1913  presented  to  Congress. 
In  1902  certain  citizens  of  Iowa  represent- 
ed by  Mr.  Silas  Wilson,  of  Atlantic,  Iowa,  pre- 
sented a  draft  of  a  bill  the  intention  of  which 
was  to  prohibit  the  interstate  shipment  of  in- 
toxicating liquors  in  certain  cases.  This  bill 
was  drawn  with  the  idea  of  supplementing  the 
old  Wilson  Law  which  was  passed  in  1890  and 
which  the  courts  declared  did  not  go  to  the 
point  of  giving  the  states  control  of  interstate 
shipments  of  intoxicating  liquors  within  their 
own  borders.  This  measure  was  introduced  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  Representa- 
tive Hepburn,  of  Iowa,  and  was  known  as  the 
Hepburn  Bill.  It  was  favorably  reported  by 
the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  with  a 
unanimous  vote,  and  finally  passed.  In  the 
Senate  the  bill  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Interstate  Commerce,  the  chairman  of  which 
was  Senator  Stephen  B.  Elkins,  of  West  Vir- 
ginia. When  the  matter  came  up  for  considera- 
tion in  the  committee  and  it  seemed  apparent 

142 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

that  a  majority  of,  the  members  present  were 
Hkely  to  vote  for  a  favorable  report  to  the 
Senate,  the  chairman,  Senator  Elkins,  without 
warning  and  without  excuse,  rose  from  his 
chair  and  declared  the  committee  adjourned, 
thus  blocking  the  way  for  any  report  to  the 
Senate  and  leaving  the  bill  (H.  R.  1531)  to  die 
in  the  Senate  Committee  of  the  Fifty-seventh 
Congress. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Hepburn  Bill  in  the 
Fifty-seventh  Congress,  Representative 
Charles  E.  Littlefield,  of  Maine,  and  Judge 
Walter  Smith  drew  another  bill  more  far- 
reaching  than  the  old  Hepburn  Bill  and  not 
subject  to  some  of  the  objections  which  had 
been  urged  against  the  former  measure.  This 
bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives by  Representative  Hepburn,  of 
Iowa,  and  in  the  Senate  by  Senator  Jonathan 
P.  Dolliver,  of  the  same  state.  This  bill  was 
known  as  the  Hepburn-Dolliver  Bill,  being,  in 
the  House,  H.  R.  4072.  After  extensive  hear- 
ings by  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House, 
the  bill  was  favorably  reported  to  the  Fifty- 
eighth  Congress  on  April  8,  1904.  It  was 
placed  on  the  calendar.  While  the  report  on 
the  bill  was  an  unanimous  one,  Representative 
Richard  W.  Parker,  of  New  Jersey,  presented 

143 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

minority  views  favoring  such  an  amendment 
as  would  provide  tliat  the  dehveries  of  inter- 
state shipments  should  be  subject  to  the  po- 
lice laws  of  the  state.  Although  the  bill  was 
on  the  calendar,  it  was,  however,  impossible 
to  get  it  up  for  consideration  in  the  regular 
order  and  an  attempt  was  finally  made  to 
secure  a  rule  making  it  a  special  order.  A 
motion  to  this  effect  which  was  presented  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  was  referred  to 
the  Rules  Committee,  the  Republican  members 
of  which  committee  were  Mr.  Cannon,  of  Hli- 
nois ;  Mr.  Grosvenor,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Dalzell, 
of  Pennsylvania. 

This  was  just  before  the  election  of  1904, 
and  many  Republicans  were  fearful  lest  the 
consideration  of  this  bill  at  that  time  would 
have  its  effect  on  the  presidential  election. 
Congressman  Grosvenor,  of  the  Rules  Com- 
mittee, with  whom  the  friends  of  the  bill  had 
repeatedly  conferred,  finally  proposed  to  Mr. 
Dinwiddle,  the  legislative  superintendent  of 
the  League,  that  if  the  matter  were  allowed  to 
go  over  until  after  the  election  the  majority 
of  the  Rules  Committee  would  see  that  a  rul- 
ing was  secured  for  the  consideration  of  the 
bill.  Mr.  Grosvenor,  in  making  this  promise, 
indicated   that   Mr.   Cannon   and   Mr.    Dalzell 

144 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

were  both  agreeable  to  the  plan  and  would  see 
that  the  agreement  was  carried  out.  After 
the  election  of  1904,  however,  just  at  the  time 
when  it  was  necessary  to  get  a  ruling  for  the 
consideration  of  the  bill  if  anything  were  to  be 
done  before  Congress  adjourned,  Mr.  Gros- 
venor  was  called  back  to  Ohio  to  take  charge 
of  a  case  in  court,  and  Representatives  Cannon 
and  Dalzell  insisted  they  knew  nothing  of  the 
agreement  and  for  themselves  had  not  prom- 
ised that  a  rule  would  be  given.  Later  Mr. 
Grosvenor  made  a  statement  to  the  effect  that 
neither  Mr.  Cannon  nor  Mr.  Dalzell  were 
parties  to  the  agreement,  thereby  practically 
confessing  that  his  statement  to  Mr.  Dinwid- 
dle of  the  agreement  which  had  been  reached 
was  entirely  false  insofar  as  it  concerned  any- 
one but  himself,  and  that  the  supposed  agree- 
ment was  simply  patched  up  to  get  an  excuse 
for  delaying  the  consideration  of  the  Hepburn- 
Dolliver  Bill.  The  Senate  bill  was  never  re- 
ported out  of  the  Senate  Judiciary  Committee. 
Consequently  the  Fifty-eighth  Congress  closed 
with  the  Senate  bill  in  committee  and  the 
House  bill  on  the  calendar. 

In  the  Fifty-ninth  Congress  the  bill  which 
was  presented  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
remedial  legislation  in  the  matter  of  interstate 

145 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

shipments  of  intoxicating  liquors  was  known 
as  the  Littlefield-Carmack  Bill.  In  the  House 
it  was  introduced  by  Representative  Charles 
E.  Littlefield,  of  Maine,  and  in  the  Senate  by 
Senator  Edward  W.  Carmack,  of  Tennessee. 
After  extensive  hearings  in  the  House  Com- 
mittee on  the  Judiciary  this  bill,  which  was 
known  as  H.  R.  13655,  was  reported  by  the 
committee  on  January  24,  1907,  with  a  recom- 
mendation for  its  passage.  A  minority  re- 
port was  filed,  signed  by  Mr.  Jenkins,  of  Wis- 
consin; Mr.  Parker,  of  New  Jersey;  Mr  Nevin, 
of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Bannon,  of  Ohio.  Another 
bill  covering  in  part  the  same  ground  was  pre- 
sented in  the  House,  as  H.  R.  16479,  ^^^^  was 
also  reported  by  the  Judiciary  Committee  on 
February  i,  1907.  Both  House  bills  were 
therefore  on  the  calendar.  The  matter  did  not 
come  up  for  further  consideration,  however, 
and  the  Fifty-ninth  Congress  closed  with  two 
Interstate  Liquor  Shipment  Bills  on  the  calen- 
dar of  the  House  and  the  Carmack  Bill  in  the 
Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate. 

In  the  Sixtieth  Congress,  the  Littlefield 
Bill  was  again  introduced  in  the  House  by  Mr. 
Littlefield,  and  an  Interstate  Liquor  Shipment 
Bill  similar  to  the  old  Littlefield-Carmack  Bill 
was  presented  in  the  House  by  Representative 

146 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Miller,  of  Kansas,  and  in  the  Senate  by  Sen- 
ator Curtis,  of  Kansas ;  it  being  known  as  the 
Miller-Curtis  Bill.  Neither  the  bills  in  the 
House  nor  the  bill  in  the  Senate  secured  a 
favorable  report  by  the  Judiciary  Committees. 
A  C.  O.D.  shipment  measure  drawn  by  Senator 
Knox  was  finally  recommended  by  the  Sen- 
ate Committee  as  a  substitute  for  all  such  leg- 
islation then  pending,  and  later,  upon  the  in- 
itial motion  of  Representative  Humphreys, 
was  attached  as  an  amendment  to  the  Penal 
Code,  and  thus  was  passed  by  both  houses  of 
Congress.  This  measure  contained  three  sepa- 
rate provisions,  as  follows : 
(S.  2982.) 
An  Act  to  codify,  revise  and  amend  the  Penal  Laws 
of  the  United  States. 
Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
gress Assembled,  Tliat  the  Penal  Laws  of  the  United 
States  be,  and  they  hereby  are,  codified,  revisedj  and 
amended,  with  title,  chapters,  headnotes,  and  sections, 
entitled,  numbered,  and  to  read  as  follows: 

Sec.  238.  Any  officer,  agent,  or  employee  of  any 
railroad  company,  express  company,  or  other  common 
carrier,  who  shall  knowingly  deliver  or  cause  to  be 
delivered  to  any  person  other  than  the  person  to 
whom  it  has  been  consigned,  unless  upon  the  written 
order  in  each  instance  of  the  bona  fide  consignee,  or  to 

147 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

any  fictitious  person,  or  to  any  person  under  a  ficti- 
tious name,  any  spirituous,  vinous,  malted,  fermented, 
or  other  intoxicating  liquor  of  any  kind  which  has 
been  shipped  from  one  state,  territory,  or  district  of 
the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but  sub- 
ject to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  into  any  other  state, 
territory,  or  district  of  the  United  States,  or  place  non- 
contiguous to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof, 
or  from  any  foreign  country  into  any  state,  territory, 
or  district  of  the  United  Stages,  or  place  noncontigu- 
ous to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  shall  be 
fined  not  more  than  five  thousand  dollars,  or  im- 
prisoned not  more  than  two  years,  or  both. 

Sec.  239.  Any  railroad  company,  express  company, 
or  other  common  carrier,  or  any  other  person  who,  in 
connection  with  the  transportation  of  any  spirituous, 
vinous,  malted,  fermented,  or  other  intoxicating  liquor 
of  any  kind  from  one  state,  territory,  or  district  of  the 
United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but  subject  to 
the  jurisdiction  thereof, into  any  other  state, territory, or 
district  of  the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to 
but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  or  from  any 
foreign  country  into  any  state,  territory,  or  district  of 
the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but  sub- 
ject to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  shall  collect  the  pur- 
chase price  or  an}^  part  thereof  before,  on,  or  after 
delivery  from  the  consignee,  or  from  any  other  per- 
son, or  shall  in  any  manner  act  as  the  agent  of  the 
buyer  or  seller  of  any  such  liquor,  for  the  purpose  of 
buying  or  selling  or  completing  the  sale  thereof,  sav- 
ing only  the  actual  transportation  and  delivery  of  the 
same,  shall  be  fined  not  more  than  five  thousand 
dollars. 

148 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Sec.  240.  Whoever  shall  knowingly  ship  or  cause 
to  be  shipped  from  one  state,  territory,  or  district  of 
the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but 
subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  into  any  other  state, 
territory,  or  district  of  the  United  States,  or  place  non- 
contiguous to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof, 
or  from  any  foreign  country  into  any  state,  territory, 
or  district  of  the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous 
to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  any  package 
of  or  package  containing  any  spirituous,  vinous,  malt- 
ed, fermented,  or  other  intoxicating  liquor  of  any  kind, 
unless  such  package  be  so  labeled  on  the  outside  cover 
as  to  plainly  show  the  name  of  the  consignee,  the 
nature  of  its  contents,  and  the  quantity  contained 
therein,  shall  be  fined  not  more  than  five  thousand 
dollars ;  and  such  liquor  shall  be  forfeited  to  the 
United  States,  and  may  be  seized  and  condemned  by 
like  proceedings  as  those  provided  by  law  for  the 
seizure  and  forfeiture  of  property  imported  into  the 
United  States  contrary  to  law. 

[Approved   March  4,   1909.] 

While  this  measure  helped  greatly  in  the 
matter  of  all  C.  O.  D.  shipments,  it  did  not 
otherwise  touch  the  proposition  of  interstate 
shipment  of  liquors  under  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Law. 

In  the  Sixty-first  Congress  the  Miller- 
Curtis  Bill  was  again  introduced  in  practically 
the  same  form  as  it  had  been  presented  in  the 
Sixtieth  Congress,  but  was  not  reported  out 
by    either    the    Judiciary    Committee    of    the 

149 


HISTORY  OF  THE  ANTI- SALOON  LEAGUE 

House    or    the    Judiciary    Committee    of    the 
Senate. 

Early  in  the  Sixty-second  Congress,  a  bill 
similar  to  the  old  Littlefield-Carmack  Bill, 
which  was  known  in  the  Sixtieth  and  Sixty- 
first  Congresses  as  the  Miller-Curtis  Bill,  was 
again  presented  as  the  Sheppard-Curtis  Bill, 
being  introduced  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Morris 
Sheppard,  of  Texas,  and  in  the  Senate  by  Sen- 
ator Curtis,  of  Kansas.    This  bill  provided: 

That  all  fermented,  distilled  or  other  intoxicating 
liquors  or  liquids  transported  into  any  state  or  terri- 
tory, or  remaining  therein  for  use,  consumption,  sale, 
or  storage  therein,  shall,  upon  arrival  within  the  boun- 
daries of  such  state  or  territory  and  before  delivery 
to  the  consignee,  be  subject  to  the  operation  and  effect 
of  the  laws  of  such  state  or  territory  enacted  in  the 
exercise  of  its  reserved  police  powers  to  the  same  ex- 
tent and  in  the  same  manner  as  though  such  liquids 
or  liquors  had  been  produced  in  such  state  or  territory, 
and  shall  not  be  exempt  therefrom  by  reason  of  being 
introduced  therein  in  original  packages  or  otherwise. 

Some  time  after  this  bill  had  been  intro- 
duced in  the  Sixty-second  Congress,  another 
bill  drawn  by  Mr.  Fred  S.  Caldwell,  of  Okla- 
homa, with  a  view  to  avoiding  the  Constitu- 
tional objections  which  had  been  repeatedly 
ofifered  against  the  old  Littlefield  Bill,  v/as  pre- 
sented in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Mr. 
Webb,  of  North  Carolina,  and  in  the  Senate  by 

150 


HISTORY    OF.  THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

Senator  McCumber,  of  North  Dakota;  being 
known  as  the  Webb-McCumber  Bill.  For  a 
number  of  months  these  measures  were  in 
committee,  with  but  slight  prospect  of  either 
being  reported.  In  December,  191 1,  however, 
in  response  to  a  call  made  by  the  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  America,  a  Congress  was  held  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  to  take  up  the  whole  gen- 
eral subject  of  legislation  along  the  line  of 
interstate   shipments   of   intoxicating   liquors. 

While  the  call  for  this  conference  was  made 
by  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America,  the 
action  of  the  National  League  in  this  matter 
was  largely  at  the  suggestion  of  Hon.  S.  E. 
Nicholson,  the  secretary  of  the  national  or- 
ganization and  at  that  time  national  legisla- 
tive superintendent  of  the  League.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  conference  and  the  results  which 
followed  the  getting  together  of  the  temper- 
ance forces  on  this  important  question  of  na- 
tional legislation  were  very  largely  due  to  Mr. 
Nicholson's  efforts. 

Mr.  Nicholson  had  been  closely  connected 
with  the  Anti-Saloon  League  from  its  birth. 
As  a  member  of  the  legislature  in  Indiana,  he 
was  the  author  of  the  Nicholson  Remonstrance 
Law,  and  was  later  the  president  of  the  Indi- 
ana   Good    Citizens'  League,  which  organiza- 

151 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

tion  was  finally  merged  into  the  Anti-Saloon 
League.  Mr.  Nicholson  was  afterward  super- 
intendent of  the  League  work  in  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania,  and  for  two  years  thereafter 
he  was  the  national  legislative  superintendent 
at  Washington.  For  many  years  he  was  one 
of  the  most  active  members  of  the  National 
Headquarters  Committee,  and  has  been  the 
secretary  of  the  National  League  since  1899. 

Mr.  Nicholson's  long  and  wide  experience 
in  dealing  with  legislative  bodies,  both  as  a 
member  and  as  the  representative  of  the 
League,  had  convinced  him  of  the  necessity 
for  united  action  upon  the  part  of  the  reform 
organizations  in  order  to  secure  results;  and 
the  calling  of  this  conference,  which  was  par- 
ticipated in  by  representatives  of  most  of  the 
temperance  organizations  of  the  nation,  and 
the  comparatively  quick  results  which  came 
from  this  united  action,  fully  demonstrated 
the  wisdom  of  Mr.  Nicholson's  judgment  in 
inducing  the  League  to  inaugurate  such  a 
movement. 

This  conference  was  held  on  December  14 
and  15,  191 1.  It  was  composed  of  Governors, 
congressmen,  judges  and  numerous  other  rep- 
resentative delegates  appointed  by  the  Govern- 
ors of  states  and  by  different  temperance  or- 

152 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

ganizations,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  to  an 
agreement  between  all  the  friends  of  such  leg- 
islation on  some  measure  that  would  be  accept- 
able to  all.  After  considerable  discussion  the 
conference  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  an 
effective  bill.  The  committee  was  composed  of 
Rev.  A.  J.  Barton,  of  Texas,  chairman;  Hon. 
Fred  S.  Caldwell,  of  Oklahoma;  Dr.  James 
Cannon,  Jr.,  of  Virginia;  ex-Governor  J.  Frank 
Hanly,  of  Indiana;  Hon.  S.  E.  Nicholson,  of 
Washington,  D.  C. ;  Senator  Charles  Curtis,  of 
Kansas;  Senator  P.  J.  McCumber,  of  North 
Dakota ;  Hon.  E.  Y.  Webb,  of  North  Carolina ; 
Hon.  Morris  Sheppard,  of  Texas ;  Hon.  Fred 
S.  Jackson,  of  Kansas;  Mrs.  Margaret  Dye 
Ellis  and  Dr.  Wilbur  F.  Crafts,  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  and  Mr.  Edwin  C.  Dinwiddle. 

As  a  result  of  the  committee's  deliberations 
the  following  bill  was  agreed  to,  and  was  in- 
troduced in  both  houses  of  Congress  as  the 
Sheppard-Kenyon  Bill,  known  as  House  Reso- 
lution 16214,  and  Senate  Bill  4043.  This  bill 
was  as  follows: 

That  the  shipment  or  transportation  in  any  man- 
ner or  by  any  means  whatsoever  of  any  spirituous, 
vinous,  malted,  fermented,  or  other  intoxicating'  liquor 
of  any  kind,  including-  beer,  ale,  or  wine,  from  one 
state,  territory,  or  district  of  the  United  States,  or 
place  noncontiguous  to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 

153 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

thereof,  into  any  other  state,  territory,  or  district  of 
the  United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but  sub- 
ject to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  or  from  any  foreign 
country  into  any  state,  territor}',  or  district  of  the 
United  States,  or  place  noncontiguous  to  but  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  which  said  spirituous, 
vinous,  malted,  fermented,  or  other  intoxicating  liquor 
is  intended,  by  any  person  interested  therein,  directly 
or  indirectly,  or  in  any  manner  connected  with  the 
transaction,  to  be  received,  possessed,  or  kept,  or  in 
any  manner  used,  either  in  the  original  package  or 
otherwise,  in  violation  of  any  law  of  such  state,  terri- 
tory, or  district  of  the  United  States,  or  place  noncon- 
tiguous to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  en- 
acted in  the  exercise  of  the  police  powers  of  such 
state,  territory,  or  district  of  the  United  States,  or  place 
noncontiguous  to  but  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  there- 
of, is  hereby  prohibited;  and  any  and  all  contracts 
pertaining  to  such  transactions  are  hereby  declared 
to  be  null  and  void,  and  no  suit  or  action  shall  be 
maintained  in  any  court  of  the  United  States  upon  any 
such  contract  or  contracts,  or  for  the  enforcement  or 
protection  of  any  alleged  right  based  upon  or  grow- 
ing out  of  such  contract  or  contracts,  or  for  the  pro- 
tection in  any  manner  whatsoever  of  such  prohibited 
transactions. 

Sec.  2.  That  there  shall  be  no  property  right  in 
or  to  any  such  liquor  while  in  the  possession  of  any 
railway  company,  express  company,  or  other  common 
carrier  in  connection  with  any  shipment  or  transpor- 
tation thereof  in  violation  of  this  act. 

After  extensive  hearing-s  in  the  Senate  the 
Sheppard-Kenyon   Bill   was   amended   by   the 

154 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

addition  of  a  second  section  which  added  to  the 
new  bill  the  old  Littlefield  measure  compelling 
all  shipments  of  intoxicating  liquors  under  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Act  to  become  subject  to 
the  laws  of  any  state  as  soon  as  such  shipments 
cross  the  state  line.  In  its  amended  form  the 
bill  was  reported  by  the  Judiciary  Committee 
of  the  Senate,  and,  by  unanimous  consent 
agreement,  was  fixed  as  a  special  order  for 
Monday,  February  lo,  1913. 

In  the  meantime  the  Judiciary  Committee 
of  the  House  took  up  the  old  Webb  Bill,  after 
which  the  Sheppard-Kenyon  bill  was  pattern- 
ed, and  after  repeated  and  extensive  hearings 
reported  the  Webb  Bill  with  a  favorable  rec- 
ommendation to  the  House.  The  Committee 
on  Rules  was  appealed  to  for  a  special  rule, 
which  was  given,  and  the  bill  came  up  for  dis- 
cussion and  final  passage  on  Saturday,  Febru- 
ary 8,  1913.  After  all  amendments  except  the 
Judiciary  Committee  amendments  had  been 
voted  down  by  large  majorities,  and  after  a 
three-hours'  discussion  on  the  merits  of  the 
measure,  this  bill,  known  as  the  Webb  Bill, 
was  passed  by  a  vote  of  239  to  sixty-five. 

On  Monday,  February  10,  when  the  Ken- 
yon  Bill  came  up  under  the  unanimous  con- 
sent agreement  for  consideration  in  the  Senate, 

15s 


HISTORY    OF    THE   ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

the  Kenyon  Bill  was  amended  by  striking  out 
all  after  the  enacting  clause  and  substituting 
therefor  the  language  of  the  Webb  Bill  as  it 
had  passed  the  House  of  Representatives. 
This  was  finally  agreed  to,  and  the  bill  was 
passed. 

This  presented  a  peculiar  parliamentary 
question.  While  the  language  of  the  Webb 
Bill,  which  had  passed  the  House,  was  identical 
with  the  amended  Kenyon  Bill,  which  had 
passed  the  Senate,  yet  the  number  and  enact- 
ing clause  of  the  bill  passed  by  the  Senate  made 
that  instrument,  under  the  parliamentary 
rules,  a  Senate  bill.  It  became  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  have  the  bill  which  had  passed  the 
Senate  messaged  to  the  House  for  action  by 
that  body.  The  final  vote  in  the  House  on  the 
amended  Senate  bill  was  taken  on  February 
II,  and  the  measure  was  then  sent  to  President 
William  H.  Taft.  President  Taft  held  the  bill 
for  the  Constitutional  limit  of  ten  days,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  he  returned  it  to  the  Senate 
with  his  veto  message.  ■  The  veto  message, 
with  the  bill,  came  up  for  action  in  the  Senate 
on  the  afternoon  of  February  28,  and  the  bill 
was  passed  over  the  president's  veto  by  a  vote 
of  63  to  21.  On  March  i  the  House  passed  the 
bill  over  the  President's  veto  by  a  vote  of  244 

156 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

to  95.  Thus  the  Webb-Kenyon  Bill  became  a 
law. 

The  passage  of  this  measure,  after  more 
than  a  decade  of  aggressive  work  by  the 
League  at  Washington  and  in  the  Congres- 
sional districts  of  the  several  states,  was  se- 
cured only  by  the  earnest  co-operation  of  all 
the  anti-liquor  forces  of  the  nation.  In  a  pe- 
culiar way,  however,  the  special  credit  for  this 
victory  is  due  the  legislative  superintendent  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League,  Rev.  Edwin  C.  Din- 
widdle. 

Mr.  Dinwiddle  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
the  League  movement,  having  been  the  second 
man  called  into  service  by  Dr.  Howard  H. 
Russell  after  the  birth  of  the  Ohio  League  at 
Oberlin.  He  began  his  work  as  a  League  man 
in  December,  1893.  In  the  Ohio  legislative 
session  of  1894,  he  assisted  Superintendent 
Russell  in  the  legislative  work  in  behalf  of  the 
Haskell  Local  Option  Bill,  after  which  he  was 
made  legislative  superintendent  of  the  Ohio 
League.  After  the  Pennsylvania  branch  of  the 
League  was  organized,  he  became  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  League  in  that  state;  and  when 
national  legislative  offices  were  opened  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  in  1899,  he  was  elected 
national    legislative    superintendent    to    look 

157 


HISTORY    OF   THE    ANTI- SALOON    LEAGUE 

after  the  League's  interest  at  the  national 
Capital. 

When  the  fight  for  Prohibition  in  the  state 
of  Oklahoma  came  on,  Mr.  Dinwiddie,  after 
making  a  successful  fight  to  secure  a  state- 
hood bill  in  Congress  favorable  to  the  eflforts 
on  the  part  of  the  people  for  Prohibition  in 
Oklahoma,  went  to  Oklahoma  at  the  direction 
of  the  National  League  and  personally  took 
charge  of  the  campaign  for  the  Prohibitory- 
Amendment  to  the  state  Constitution.  How 
well  he  managed  that  campaign  is  best  evi- 
denced by  the  vote  on  the  proposed  amend- 
ment, which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  Pro- 
hibition by  a  majority  of  over  18,000. 

His  most  important  and  distinguished 
services,  however,  have  been  along  the  lines 
of  national  legislation.  The  Anti-Canteen 
Law,  with  the  later  provisions  and  appropria- 
tions for  army  post  canteen  substitutes;  the 
measure  creating  a  special  enforcement  de- 
partment and  providing  for  appropriations  by 
Congress  from  time  to  time  to  compel  obedi- 
ence to  laws  against  the  sale  of  liquor  to  In- 
dians and  in  Indian  countries;  the  abolition  of 
the  liquor  canteens  in  state  and  national 
Soldiers'  Homes ;  advanced  temperance  leg- 
islation for  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  many 

158 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

other  measures,  as  well  as  the  Webb-Kenyon 
Interstate  Liquor  Shipment  Law,  were  secur- 
ed largely  under  his  direction  as  the  national 
legislative  officer  of  the  League.  So  that  to 
no  other  man  is  greater  credit  due  for  the  re- 
markable progress  of  the  temperance  reform 
movement  in  the  way  of  Federal  legislation 
than  to  Mr.  Dinwiddie. 

The  passage  of  the  Webb-Kenyon  Law, 
which  in  itself  promised  so  much  in  the  way  of 
permitting  the  state  laws  against  the  liquor 
traffic  to  be  enforced  by  the  state  authorities, 
which  so  completely  stripped  the  traffic  of  the 
protecting  cloak  of  Interstate  Commerce,  by 
means  of  which  it  had  so  persistently  violated 
state  laws  against  its  transportation  and  sale, 
was  electric  in  its  effect  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  liquor  forces  were  stunned  by  the 
action  of  Congress,  while  the  temperance 
forces  were  jubilantly  encouraged.  The  fact 
that  Congress,  even  over  the  veto  of  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  had  passed  such  a 
measure,  thus  dealing  such  a  terrific  blow  to 
the  liquor  traffic  in  the  nation,  was  most  sig- 
nificant. Aside  from  the  importance  of  the 
law  as  an  enforcement  measure,  this  action  by 
Congress  was  prophetic  of  what  the  future 
would  bring  in  the  way  of  further  restrictive 

^59 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

and  prohibitory  legislation.  The  signs  of  dis- 
tress on  the  part  of  the  liquor  interests  were 
apparent  in  the  articles  and  editorials  of  prac- 
tically every  pro-liquor  journal  and  paper 
throughout  the  nation. 

The  Anti-Saloon  League  lost  no  time  in 
making  the  most  of  the  situation  and  in  clear- 
ing the  decks  for  future  action  in  the  interest 
of  more  drastic  measures  in  the  states  and  in  a 
program  for  greater  activity  in  the  national 
movement.  No  sooner,  in  fact,  had  the  Webb- 
Kenyon  Bill  been  put  into  operation  than  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  of  America  began  to  make 
preparations  for  the  next  step  in  national  leg- 
islation. The  American  Issue,  the  official 
organ  of  the  League,  came  out  editorially  in 
favor  of  a  movement  for  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  providing 
for  the  Prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  beverage  intoxicants.  The  Headquarters 
Committee  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of 
America,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the 
General  Superintendent,  favorably  passed  up- 
on the  proposition  for  National  Prohibition  as 
the  next  and  final  step.  This  action  of  the 
Headquarters  Committee  was  submitted  to 
the  trustees  of  the  National  organization,  who, 

i6o 


HISTORY    OF    THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

by  an  overwhelming"  majority,  endorsed  the 
plan. 

The  twenty  years  of  League  activity, 
therefore,  from  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the 
organization  in  1893,  closed  with  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  putting  into  operation  the 
machinery  for  launching  the  campaign  in  be- 
half of  a  Constitutional  Amendment  providing 
for  National  Prohibition. 

This  campaign  was  formally  launched  at 
the  Twenty-Year  Jubilee  Convention  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League  of  America,  which  was 
held    at    Columbus,    Ohio,    November    10-13, 

1913- 


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